Banished Uzumaki
by bwhite9
Summary: Naruto is banished after he fails to bring Sasuke back. Naruto takes all of his parents' scrolls and weapons and leaves before anyone notices. NaruFuu main pairing. [Abandoned]
1. Chapter 1 part 1

(Hidden leaf village)

Tsunade was not having a good day Sasuke Uchiha had betrayed the leaf and ran away yesterday. She had thought that it would not be hard to bring him back and only sent a small team of Shikamaru, Naruto, Choji, Kiba, and Neji. With the new chunin Shikamaru in charge.

Not too long ago she had learned that the mission had gone to hell with most of the team heavily injured. The only exceptions were Shikamaru who only and a broken finger and Naruto but that was because he was still unaccounted for. To top it all off Lee had run off after them but somehow escaped any major injuries. This was most likely do to the fact that Gaara had shown up in time to save him.

She sighed and thought about her next move. The sand siblings and come just in time to rescue and save three of the retrieval team and had also picked up Choji on the way back to the leaf. She had gotten reports that Neji and Choji should be able to live but it would not be out of the hospital for at least a month.

Lee informed her that he had linked up with Naruto and that he had continued on after Sasuke in the direction of the land of rice patties. At that moment Kakashi barged into her office and demanded to know what was happening. After informing Kakashi of the situation Kakashi was about to leave when Tsunade stopped him.

"I want you to go and track Naruto and Sasuke down and bring them back."

Kakashi nodded and said "Don't worry I was going to do that weather you told me to or not." Kakashi walked out of her office with a determined look on his face.

Kakashi went to the northern gate and summoned his eight ninja hounds.

Pakkun who was standing on the tallest of the ninja hound said "What do you need Kakashi."

Kakashi replied "I need you guys to find Naruto and Sasuke as fast as possible before they kill each other. They were heading in the direction of the land of rice patties so concentrate in that area." With the scents of team seven already memorized the hounds set off to find them.

Kakashi started to evaluate the situation. It was late in the afternoon and it looked like it would start raining tomorrow mid-day. If he didn't find those two soon it would be very hard to find them. After coming to this conclusion he started to head off in the direction of the land of rice patties.

(Land of fire)

Pakkun had found the trail of Naruto and Sasuke and with a howl he informed Kakashi who was soon there. Kakashi without looking down at Pakkun asked. "What have you found?"

"I found the trail but I also smell that a battle is about to start most likely from the two we are tracking." Pakkun replied.

Kakashi's face got more determined than it ever had and said "Then we need to pick up the pace and maybe we can get to them in time."

(Valley of the end)

The evidence of there being a battle and was now finished was everywhere. The demonic chakra was dispersing, there were burn marks and craters, and there was only one person. That person was a young boy with sun blond hair in orange clothing. He was Naruto Uzumaki.

Kakashi ran up to the unconscious boy and looked around for any sign of his other student. He looked down and asked Pakkun. "Can you still track Sasuke's sent."

Pakkun replied "No it's been raining for more than an hour his sent is gone."

Kakashi sighed and picked up Naruto piggy back style and then told Pakkun he could go. With a pop of smoke Pakkun was gone and Kakashi was heading back to the leaf.

(Land of fire)

Kakashi was tree hopping when four medical ninja from the leaf appeared. The lead one said. "Good you found Naruto." While tree hopping but at a slower pace he did a medical evaluation on Naruto. He then said "He as some major injuries but he will be fine. The best course of action will be to get him back to the leaf hospital as fast as possible."

Another medical ninja asked "Is Sasuke dead or did he get away?"

Kakashi replied "He got away and I could no longer track him." With that all five ninja increased there pace back to the leaf.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade just realized that things were going to go from bad to worse. She looked down at what was on her desk. It was a newspaper with the winning lottery numbers. For the 3rd straight day she had won the lottery and not just win but top prize. She knew this was bad Kakashi had not returned with Naruto she was about to go see if she could find any answers when Shizune burst in.

She said "Kakashi has returned with Naruto and is currently in the hospital. His injuries are major but he should be fine and make a full recovery soon."

Tsunade who was half standing when Shizune came in sat back down and let out a sigh of relief. Her pseudo grandson was fine knowing his healing powers he would be ok in a few days. She would never admit especially to Naruto it but she loved how he called her granny. He had turned her life around and was now in a better direction.

She got up and went to the hospital to see Naruto and talk to Kakashi to get a report of what happened.

(Leaf hospital)

After getting Naruto's room number she when straight to see him. When she got there she sat next to his bed he was still asleep from all that he had gone through. After a couple of minutes Kakashi walked in with non-other than the toad sage himself Jiraiya.

Tsunade looked up and asked Kakashi to report on what happened.

Kakashi said "I tracked Naruto and Sasuke to the valley of the end where they had a heavy battle. I was unable to get there in time to stop it or intervene. I found Naruto unconscious on the ground. Because of the rain I could not track Sasuke any further and so I returned."

Tsunade sighed she knew this would be trouble the council would not like that there precious Uchiha was gone. But at least her grandson figure was here and safe.

After that Kakashi left and headed home. Jiraiya stayed to talk to Tsunade. He asked "So how do you think the council will take the full loss of the Uchiha clan?"

Tsunade responded "They won't be happy but there is not much that can be done about it now."

Jiraiya replied "Well you are probably right any way I was thinking it would be a good idea to take Naruto on a training trip. My information indicates that the Akatsuki will start to make their move in three years and we need to make a real shinobi out of him by the time they start."

Tsunade nodded in agreement and said "I'll miss the brat while he is gone but that sounds like a good idea." They both sat there is silence while Tsunade brushed Naruto's hair with her hand and Jiraiya watch his precious student sleep while he planned out there training trip the one thing he knew he had to do was tell Naruto about his parents the only thing was when and how.

While he was thinking on this Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado two of the three elder advisers to the Hokage came in and Koharu said. "The council has been called and would like a report of the Sasuke retrieval mission."

Tsunade sighed knowing this would happen sooner or later and said "I'll be there shortly." She got up and quickly went and got some sake for later because she knew this would cause a head ache to deal with the council.

(Leaf council chambers)

All the heads of the major clans were present as well as the three elder advisors Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, and Donzo Shimura when Tsunade walked in.

Tsunade sat in her chair and said "I already know why this meeting has been called I'll just start by giving the combined reports on the Sasuke retrieval mission." After saying that she when in and told the councilors everything including how Naruto use some of the nine tails chakra in his fight with Sasuke.

After that she asked if there any questions. One of the clan heads she didn't like because he was greedy and arrogant asked "What are we going to do with the nine tails Brat he is obvious a danger to us all. He should be banished or killed before he hurts anyone else."

Tsunade was stunned that someone would say something like that. And responded very angrily "We and not going to banish or kill any one he did not hurt any leaf ninja on that mission. Sasuke is a traitor and a missing ninja now and while Naruto fought him so we have no grounds to banish him on. He will be going on a training trip with Jiraiya soon."

Koharu said "He is right Tsunade-sama his could pose a danger to us we have to consider banishment and there is no way he could go on a training trip with Jiraiya with the full loss of the Uchiha clan our enemies might think we are weak and we need Jiraiya to stay in the village in case someone attacks and he cannot maintain his spy network and train the nine tails brat at the same time."

Faster than Tsunade ever thought the council was capable of working they voted and decided that Naruto had to be banished. After this happened she said "Has Hokage I veto the measure to banish Naruto Uzumaki."

After she said that Homura then responded by saying "That is true you may be able to veto this but the daimyo can overrule you so we shall present this to him and see what he says."

After this Tsunade dismissed the council meeting in a rage and went to her office.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade stormed in and immediately ordered one of the hidden ANBU to go get Jiraiya.

10 minutes later Jiraiya came in through a window and asked "What is this about Tsunade did something happen at the council meeting?" after he saw how mad she was.

She was about to respond when we started crying her latched on to Jiraiya and said through her tears "They are trying to banish Naruto." Jiraiya was shocked and asked for more details. Tsunade then explained what the situation was and what happened at the meeting.

Jiraiya wrapped his arms around her then said "Well shit the daimyo never like Naruto and given the chance will most likely banish him."

Tsunade still crying but a bit less asked "What are we going to do?"

Jiraiya then responded "I will leave before they can trap me here and I will wait not far from here when he is banished I will find him and take him on that trip it just might be a bit longer then I was planning."

Tsunade now not crying knowing that her grandson figure would have a plan and not a bad one at that. She nodded and got out of the hug and sat back at her desk. Jiraiya then said "Well if there is nothing more we need to do then I will be leaving its best if you don't try and contact me to make sure that someone doesn't though a wrench in this plan" Tsunade agreed and Jiraiya left.

Tsunade then thought 'Naruto is friends with five clan heirs and the son of the head of a clan. I think they will fight to have his banishment removed.' After that she pulled out a bottle of sake and started drinking.

(Daimyo's palace)

Later that Night Donzo, Koharu, and Homura came to the arrived at the daimyo's palace and to have a meeting about the banishment of Naruto. Donzo said to the daimyo "I am sorry to inform you that Sasuke Uchiha has left the leaf village."

The Daimyo responded "That is a shame to have lost such a powerful clan."

Donzo continued "The person responsible for his defection was Naruto Uzumaki"

"That trouble maker has really done it is time what is Tsunade going to do about this." The Daimyo asked.

Donzo answered "She plans on doing nothing. The council has voted to have him banished but she vetoed it. However you as daimyo have the authority to overturn her veto if it pertains to a banishment."

"Ok Then I will sign the necessary papers to have him banished. By the day after tomorrow he will no longer be allowed in the leaf and one week from then he will no longer be allowed in the land of fire. In accordance with the land of fire and the leaf village's policy on banishment." The daimyo stated.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade got to her office at the usual time 10 am and when she sat down at her desk and the first thing she saw was that the daimyo had authorized the banishment of Naruto. However expected this made her sad in accordance with the laws of the land of fire and the leaf he would have to leave the day after he was discharged from the hospital at noon. Tsunade sighed and pulled her sake out and thought to herself 'I am going to need a lot of this if I am going to get through this ordeal.'

(Leaf hospital)

Naruto was starting to stir. A normal person would have been out for several days after doing what Naruto had done but because of the healing power of the nine tails he was already starting to get better.

One of the nurses noticed that he was starting to wake up and called Shizune over. Shizune came and went into the room just as Naruto was waking. She then asked "How are you feeling?"

He then said "My body feels fine, but I failed to bring Sasuke back."

Shizune patted him on the head and said "Its ok I am glad that you are here and safe you will likely be discharged from the hospital tomorrow and after that I know Tsunade will want to see you."

Naruto said "Ok then I'll go and see granny tomorrow."

It almost killed Shizune because she knew what Tsunade had to talk to him about but it was better if they told him after he was out of the hospital.

Shizune the said "You should get some rest it will make you feel better.

Shizune walked out to go tell Tsunade the situation with Naruto. She then though about what had happened and what will soon happen. News that Naruto was to be banished was not common knowledge yet as it could not be announced until Naruto was out of the Hospital.

(Hokage's Office)

It May have only been noon but Tsunade was drunk and sad that her favorite brat was being banished and there was nothing she could do about it.

Shizune walked in normally she would scold Tsunade for drinking but this time Shizune what nothing more than to join Tsunade and have a few drinks.

She then said "Tsunade-sama Naruto woke up about an hour ago and he should be ready to be discharged from the hospital later today or tomorrow."

Tsunade then said "No matter what don't discharge him till tomorrow so he can have as much time as possible to leave."

Shizune nodded and walked out.

(Leaf Hospital)

Naruto was feeling a bit better but not much when the sand siblings and Shikamaru came to say hi and see how he was doing. The best part of their visit for them was that they brought ramen.

Garra was happy to see his first and best friend and actually smiled a little bit as he watched how Naruto ate his ramen. But they could not stay and had to leave later that day as they were needed in the sand.

Not long after they left Sakura came in and this made Naruto feel horrible. Has he had not been able to keep his promise to Sakura.

She came in and shouted "How could you! How could you break your promise to me!"

He then try to say that he had not given up on bringing Sasuke back but after the first word she interrupted him and said "I don't care what you have to say you broke your promise and now Sasuke is gone. I don't ever want to see or talk to you again."

Before Naruto could say anything Sakura stormed out.

Naruto curled up in a ball similar to the many times he had as a child when he was mistreated by villagers and cried himself to sleep.

The next day Shizune came in and did a check up on Naruto. Naruto didn't say much as she did the check up and after told him that he was free to go. She then said "Tsunade-sama would like to see you in her office now that you are discharged, so how about I take you there now." Naruto simply nodded and was feeling sad ever since his interaction with Sakura.

(Hokage's office)

Unlike yesterday Tsunade was not drunk as she did not what to be drunk for what she had to do.

Shizune walked in with a sad looking Naruto. Tsunade was now rethinking the whole not being drunk thing. She took a deep breath and said "The council of the Leaf village has come to the decision that you are to be banished from the leaf. You will have to leave at noon tomorrow and you will not be allowed to return to the leaf village then after one week you will have to leave the land of fire and will not be allowed to return."

In the most un-Naruto emotionless voice possible Naruto said "Is that everything Tsunade-sama if so then I would like to go get packed."

Tsunade and Shizune could have died after hearing that. Shizune because that was not the way her little brother figure should sound like and Tsunade for the same reason and how he didn't call her granny. Tsunade didn't respond she didn't know how.

After a little bit Naruto figured that there was nothing more and turned around and left. After the door closed Tsunade pulled out a bottle of sake and drained it in no time at all. She started to cry and pulled out another one but this time poured a glass. Shizune reached for the bottle. Tsunade thinking she was going to take it away was about to try and stop her but then Sizune also grabbed a cup and poured herself a glass and started to drink.

They were like that for over an hour neither caring what people would think about them drinking in the middle of the day. The sunshine of their life's seemed extinguished and gone forever.

(Naruto's apartment)

Naruto walked in and pulled out some of the sealing scrolls the Ero-sennin had gotten for him on their trip to go get Tsunade. He was about to start to pack up his stuff when a tear formed. He dropped the scrolls on the ground and they rolled away. He fell to the ground and started to cry he cried for what felt like hour maybe days. He eventually fell asleep on the floor of his apartment. Here he would stay till someone came and woke him up.

Naruto looked up to a cloaked figure and all he could see were his eyes which were a light shade of green. The rest of his face was completely black. Naruto was scared at first thinking that the cloaked figure was going to hurt him. So he quickly backed up.

The figure then pulled his hood back to reveal a man in his early thirties late twenties with goatee that connected with the rest of his hair with short black hair tied in a short pony tail behind his head. He said "Don't worry I am not hear to hurt you Naruto"

Naruto then asked "How do you know my name and who are you?"

The cloaked man then answered "Who I am is not important at the moment. There is only about 12 hours till you have to leave and there is still much that needs to happen before that. As how I know your name I will tell you this there are very few secrets that I do not know. Like who your parents were."

Naruto was stunned and then asked "You know who my parents were? Can you tell me maybe there is some family out there that I could meet? Or I don't know just something for me to do since I am no longer a leaf shinobi."

The cloaked man nodded "I'll start with your mother. She was a beautiful red head by the name of Kushina Uzumaki. Her nickname she got when she was young in the leaf was 'the Red-Hot Habanero' she got this for her very red hair a common thing in the Uzumaki clan and her fiery temper."

Naruto then asked "So I have a clan?" The man with the goatee nodded and continued. "The Uzumaki clan was known for two things one the mastery of sealing jutsu and second the incredibly powerful chakra that gave them unusually long lives. You mother had very powerful chakra even compared to the rest of the Uzumaki clan and so she was chosen to be second Jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox."

Naruto then blurted out "Wait second Jinchuuriki so there was one before me."

The Man nodded and said "Yes and you are the third. The first being Mito Uzumaki the wife of the first Hokage. Meaning that you are a third generation Jinchuuriki of the Uzumaki clan. Descendants of the Uzumaki clan are some of the few people who can keep the nine tails at bay."

Naruto then gave a confused face and asked "If the nine tails was inside my mom then how did it attack the leaf village?"

The man then said "Your birth and the nine tails attack was not a coincidence a Jinchuuriki's seal is its weakest while giving birth so if not properly monitored it will burst and the tailed beast will get out. Which leads to an interesting question as your father was there monitoring the seal. I believe that someone interrupted him from repairing the seal so that the nine tails would be released and had it attack the hidden leaf."

After a short pause the man gave incase Naruto had any questions he continued. "Before we continue I will tell you who your father was. He was a man by the name of Minato Namikaze the fourth Hokage."

Naruto looked like he was about to say something but he was interrupted. "Before you say anything like 'why' or 'how could he make his own son a Jinchuuriki' don't worry I will answer those question so just listen." Naruto nodded.

The Man continued "There were several reasons he chose you as you know the nine tails has to be sealed it cannot be destroyed. Also as I said early Uzumaki clan members are the only choice anyone else and they would have been killed by the chakra by the time they turned five. As well since you were in your mother for ten months you had gained some immunity to the fox's chakra making you without a doubt the perfect next vessel of the nine tails." Naruto looked sad but nodded understandingly.

The cloaked Man continued "Your father was also a noble man he could not in good conscience ask someone else to sacrifice their child so his could go unburdened. If he were alive he would be very sad about how your life has gone so far and would understand if you never forgave him for what he did to you."

Naruto then said "I don't like the decision he made but with if everything you said was true then I guess I understand. I would have likely done the same in his situation."

The cloaked man nodded and said "Well now that you know of your parents it's time for you to collect your inheritance."

Naruto looked confused and said in a questioning voice "Inheritance?"

The man nodded "Your father was the Hokage he had quiet an impressive library and weapons collection as well as a pretty fat bank account." He said in a sly way. He continued "Your father locked all of his stuff way with blood seals that at this point only you can activate. Their house still stands, so we should head over there and get everything." Naruto nodded and stood up.

(Namikaze estate)

Naruto and the cloaked man sneaked through the village to the Namikaze estate. The man said "What's here is ours so I will leave you to take what you want and just remember to close the door it would be best if people didn't find out you did this. Also I recommend leaving tonight while people are still in bed as to avoid questions. Well this is good bye for now I don't know when I will next see you but good luck on whatever you do."

Naruto then said "Thanks" and shook the man's hand. The cloaked man put his hood back on and disappeared into the night.

Naruto then looked back at the house it was not a big house but it was above average and a bit out of the way for privacy. He walked up and put some blood on the seal on the door and it opened. Naruto walked in and looked around for a bit it was a nice house a bit dated and dusty but that was expected. After a quick look around Naruto found the equipment room and library. Naruto made some shadow clones who all grabbed some sealing scrolls and started to get every think they could.

The weapons room the smaller of the two mostly had extra ninja supplies not lots as his parents could go into town and stock up whenever they wanted unlike he could. So he just got everything it wasn't much but since he didn't know when next he could resupply he got everything. The only special stuff was sealing supplies and a few nice swords.

The library was a large it could even rival some of the major clans libraries. Everything from E rank basic to even a few S rank jutsu. Naruto just grabbed everything there were lots of extra sealing scrolls that his parents kept that he took.

While his clones were hard at work storing everything he when to explore the upstairs part of the house he looked and found an office. He looked and found some official looking scrolls and took them. One was title 'in case of death' on it and Naruto decided to look at that later. He moved on to the bedrooms one looked like the master and another looked like it was set up for a baby. Seeing what it looked like Naruto realized what his parents did love him and that made him very happy. He shed some tears knowing that his parents were good people and they died before there time.

Naruto found some family pictures and took them. When suddenly he knew that the scrolls were all sealed and that were all then sealed a second time because there were so many and all put in his back pack. When Naruto thought about this it was interesting he now realized that he got all the memories when is clones dispelled. That was something he had to look into in the future. One memory stood out one of the clones noticed a blood seal at the back of the library.

Naruto gathered up the stuff he got from upstairs grabbed one of the last sealing scrolls and dumped all the stuff he got into it.

He grabbed is almost full back pack and went to investigate the blood seal he went to it and activated the seal. Then suddenly a door opened out of nowhere. Naruto looked in it was a short set of stares to a basement. Naruto went down and found two more scrolls one a storage scroll the other a jutsu scroll Naruto took both and put them in his back pack and left.

Naruto checked the time it was 4:00 am. Naruto noted that some of the early riser of the ninja population would be getting up soon and decided that it was time to split. As he left silently thanking that he could make shadow clone because without them it would have taken almost a day to get everything done. He made his way toward the walls. Most fortification only work one way and that's to stop people from getting in not getting out. So Naruto found it fairly easy to slip out of the village.

He quickly made his way out of the village. Now it was time for the all-important decision. Where to next?

 **(AN)**

 **I'll call the end of the chapter here. I would like just to say something about this Fanfic. This is my first time writing so I hope it works out. I have most of the story I want already written out so that should make it easier to push these out. Some of this stuff was a bit out of character but that's just because I need to get the set up for this story done, so we can move to the fun part.**

 **I didn't include the Sasuke vs Naruto fight because I hate it when authors just rehash word for word what happens in the anime I will do my best to do it as little as possible as I think it is bad writing and boring. I will also try to follow stuff to cannon as much as possible as in using characters abilities and jutsu as much as possible to make this as clear as possible. I will mostly be using the English Dubbed translations for things as I watch the dubbed mostly and it just makes my life easier to think in only one language. I may make some exceptions to this.**


	2. Chapter 2 part 1

(Outside the hidden Leaf Village)

'I just got past the last patrol area the Leaf operates. It is about 5:30 am and the sun will be coming up soon. It will be a few hours before anyone knows I am gone well that is if they cared to even find out.' Naruto thought to himself.

'The first thing I need to do is go through some of the stuff I got from my parents' house. I'll head to the land of waves and go say hi to the old man and his family. They would probably let me stay for a few days while I get everything organized.' Naruto continued to think.

'I should also break the toad contract now that I am no longer a leaf ninja it would likely be best if I gave it up.' With that thought Naruto stopped his journey for a bit and pulled out a blank scroll and remembering what he needed to do he made the seal and activated it ending his the contract with the toads.

With that done he continued moving towards the land of waves.

(A town far way but not too far)

It was about 8 am in a small village not far from the hidden leaf. In this town a was man revered or hated depending on who you were the world's greatest 'super pervert'. He was currently staying in a tavern in this village.

All of a sudden next to that tavern there was a giant puff of smoke and once it cleared it revealed a large toad and not just large it was have the size of this village it was standing next to. It then shouted "Jiraiya where are you we need to talk."

Then one of the windows in the tavern open and came out Jiraiya surprisingly without a hangover like he usually did as he was expecting to have to do things today and having a hangover would not be good for those things.

Jiraiya then said "What is it Gamabunta there are very important things I need to do today."

Gamabunta the chief of the toad summoning clan then said "Well too bad this is more important than whatever peeping you need to do. The first thing you need to do is explain why the little brat you were having follow you broke his contract with us."

Jiraiya's eyes widened when he heard what Gamabunta said he then replied "What do you mean be broke the contract. I have no idea how that happened."

Gamabunta then look surprised he could tell that Jiraiya was not lying. Then Gamabunta started to talk "Well you better figure it out I liked him a lot more then I like you, so go find him and I want a good explanation and for him to re-sign the contract."

Jiraiya looked surprised most of the time when someone lost their contract they lost it and never got it back for the chief of a summon clan to demanding someone to re-sign was almost unheard of. He then said "I was planning on meeting him today so I'll get on that right away I'll talk to you within a week."

Gamabunta nodded and said "You better." With that done Jiraiya headed for the hidden leaf as fast as he could while thinking. 'What in the hell happened for the contract to be broken. He couldn't have been killed could he or did he think he should break it because he was being banished. Well whatever the answer I better get to the leaf and fast.'

(Hokage's office)

It was early in the morning and the Konoha 10 and there senseis' plus Iruka were all gathered in the Hokage's office. Where Tsunade was explaining to them what had happened with Naruto and that now he was banished. None of them could understand why something like this was happening even Sakura was mad at him but she would never want this to happen to him.

Tsunade then said "At this point there is nothing we can do to keep him here for now. But several of you are clan heirs and I ask you when you come to power in your clan you do what you need to, to undo his banishment." The five who were the heir to their clans nodded. Tsunade was happy with this response.

She then continued. "He still has till noon before he leaves and I would like all of you to go say good bye to him." They all nodded and headed out.

(Naruto's apartment)

Jiraiya just got back to the leaf village and the first thing he did was go to Naruto's apartment hoping that he was there. When he got there he found the door locked but to the toad sage a locked door was nothing. He quickly unlocked the door and went in and saw that there was not much left. Thinking 'He must have already packed and left his apartment and is hanging out with his friends one last time.' With that thought he left in search of Naruto's friends.

It didn't take long as soon as he left the apartment building he found all of them. Kakashi waved lazily and said "You here to say good bye to Naruto as well?"

Jiraiya responded "I would but he is not here I thought he would be with you guys and was about to search for you but then he must be somewhere else."

Neji then said "He is likely at that ramen stand he likes getting a few last bowls before he leaves." Jiraiya nodded in agreement and then they all headed to Ichiraku ramen.

(Ichiraku ramen stand)

When they got there they found it empty so Iruka went up and asked "Have you or Ayame seen Naruto."

Teuchi replied "No I thought he would come here early today seeing what's happened to him."

Iruka responded "Ya I thought the same so we came here to say good bye."

Teuchi then said "When you find him make sure that he comes here and tell him the ramen is on the house today." After that they all split up to see if they could find Naruto. Sakura was very desperate to see him and apologize for what she had said to him yesterday and hopeful he would forgive her.

(Hokage's office)

Jiraiya came in through the window which surprised Tsunade she asked "Why are you here I thought you would be waiting in a nearby town to find Naruto when he left the leaf village."

Jiraiya then said "I was until Gamabunta showed up to tell me that Naruto's contract with the toads had ended. Would you know anything about this?"

Tsunade was shocked and replied "No, the village cannot make someone remove there summoning contract even if they are banished."

Jiraiya sighed and said "Well then there are only two possibilities one he somehow broke it which would be possible for him or two he could have been killed."

Tsunade face went a bit pale at the mention of him being killed. "I just spoke with his friend's maybe he is with them." She replied.

Jiraiya then said "I saw them when I went to go check his apartment and the ramen bar he likes and no one has seen him. Currently his friends are looking all over the village to see if they can find him."

Naruto's friends search the entire village but at 2 pm they had to give up

After the search was over Jiraiya when to see Tsunade.

(Hokage's office)

Jiraiya came in through the window as usual Tsunade was very drunk after noon passed she gave up hope of seeing her sunshine one last time. Jiraiya didn't even bother to sit down he just said "He must have left the village last night at some point. I am going to go and find him to see if he is willing to train with me."

Tsunade Drunkenly nodded and with that the super pervert was off to find his apprentice.

(South western area of the land of fire)

Naruto had just come to a small town and decided that it would be good to stop here and get some food as he had not eaten in some time. He quickly found a ramen bar in the town and 10 bowls later, he was off and moving. He thought to himself 'I should be able to get to the land of waves by tomorrow. After I get all my scrolls and belongings in order I should start training. The Akatsuki is after me and I need to be ready' He continued to think about what his training regimen would look like.

(Land of Waves)

Naruto was staring at something he had not expected it was a sign that said "The great Naruto Bridge" Naruto laughed a little bit and began to cross. Once he was on the other side he when straight to Tazuna's house to see if he could stay there for a few days to sort some stuff out.

Once at the house he walked up to the door and knocked. He notice that things seemed to be getting better all the building seemed to be a lot less run down and the people happier. The door open and it was Tsunami who opened it. She said is a surprised tone "Naruto what are you doing here not that it isn't nice to see you."

Naruto smiled sadly and ask "Can I come in it's a long explanation?" Tsunami nodded and let Naruto in and lead him to the kitchen where Naruto explained everything that had happened over the last week, but he left out the stuff about his parents.

And once he was done he asked "I have got a lot of scrolls and stuff before I left and I was wondering if I could stay for a few days to sort through it." Tsunami leaned over and gave Naruto a hug and said "You can stay as long as you need. Tazuna and Inari won't be home for a month so make sure that you come back in the future and say hi. Inari will be sad he missed you."

Naruto headed up to the room he would be staying in and started to sort out all the scrolls and see what he had to work with.

(Week later with Jiraiya)

It had been a week since Naruto had disappeared and the only good news was that they were pretty sure that Naruto was not killed in the village as they would have found his body by now. This meant that he had left that night for some reason.

Jiraiya sighed it had been a week and nothing had come up so it was time to talk to Gamabunta. So Jiraiya summoned him he was not looking forward to this conversation. In a puff of smoke Gamabunta appeared and said "Jiraiya did you find Naruto." Jiraiya look sheepish and said "sorry but have haven't found him."

Gamabunta sighed and said "Well if you do ever find that brat I would like to talk to him the pound him into dust for breaking that contract." Jiraiya laughed and said "I have not given up on finding so I promise when I do I'll tell you." With that Gamabunta left.

(With Asuma and kurenai)

Asuma and Kurenai were walking down a street in the leaf to their favorite restaurant to have a date. It was their favorite not because was particularly good, but none of their friends or students would disturb them there. Because nothing kills the mode like a guy wearing green spandex yelling about 'the spring time of youth' who was in his thirties.

Kurenai looked at Asuma who had been more quiet then usual and asked. "What are you thinking about?"

Asuma sighed and said "Naruto. My old man always wanted me to try and look after him a bit when he was younger and I never did. I am just thinking that after I got to know him a bit better after he graduated I am regretting doing nothing."

"You know that probably wouldn't have changed much. At this point we all wish we had done something." Kurenai said.

"Ya but it doesn't change that I should have done something." Asuma replied.

At this point they reached there restaurant and walked in and sat down.

(With Ino and Sakura)

"It's ok we'll figure out how to fix this." Ino said to a crying Sakura.

Sakura had been crying almost nonstop since Naruto was banished because of what she had said to Naruto in the hospital.

"How, I told him that I hate him and that I never wanted to see him or talk to him again. That was the last time I ever saw him." Sakura continued to cry as Ino rubbed her back reassuringly.

(With Hinata)

After the first few days after Naruto left Hinata was in a haze and didn't know what she was going to do.

It had been a week since Naruto had been banished and Hinata was starting to think about what Tsunade had told them. 'If you want to bring Naruto back then come to power in your clan and make it so he can come back.'

After thinking on this for a bit Hinata got up to go see her father to ask for more training. When she got to her father's office in the Hyuga compound she knocked on the door.

"Come in." Her father called out from his office.

Hinata came in and sat down across from her father and said "I think it is time for me to take my responsibilities as clan heir more seriously." Giving her father a serious and determined face.

Hiashi Hyuga look at his daughter and thought 'I wonder if this has to do with that Uzumaki Brat. She did have a crush on him for a very long time. Well either way as long has she is willing to take her responsibilities once she is head of the Clan and knows the truth about that boy she will give up on him.'

Hiashi then said "Good it is about time we will start your training tomorrow at 6:30 am in the main sparing ground. Don't be late"

Hinata gave a determined nod and left her father's office.

(With Shikamaru and Choji)

Shikamaru and Choji were laying back on a hill watching clouds pass by. Shikamaru couldn't get Naruto out of his head. Everything about Naruto didn't make any sense from how people treated him to how he grew up by himself. 'There is something the Adults aren't telling us and it is the key to figuring out Naruto. I have seen him treated badly and it can't be the pranks as I remember it happening before he started pranking. Also if it was the pranks the stuff people did to him would be extreme for just putting some paint on stores.'

As Shikamaru was thinking Choji was sitting next to him munching away on chips he knew that Shikamaru was thinking about Naruto. He had some of the same questions about Naruto but he knew it would be best to let Shikamaru figure it out and tell him.

(With Neji and Tenten)

Neji and Tenten were sitting on a park bench together. After Neji had lost to Naruto in the Chunin exams he had become, to put it bluntly, less of a pretentious asshole. Because of this Tenten had started to become closer to Neji. They had started to spend more time together outside of training and missions.

Tenten looked to Neji who was deep in thought and asked "Your thinking about Naruto aren't you?"

Neji simply nodded. "Are you mad at him now that he can't keep his promise and free the branch family."

Neji shook his head and said "No, and for some reason I feel that he still will keep his promise but I have no idea how."

Tenten smiled and leaned into Neji and laid her head on his shoulder.

(With Kakashi and Guy)

"You know you have been here for three days straight. It's quite unyouthful."

Kakashi continued to stair the memorial stone and said nothing.

(With Kiba and Shino)

Kiba and Shino had just finished a training session and were sitting under a tree. Kiba then said "Man I have no idea how I can help get Naruto back. At least you are the heir to a Clan."

Shino then replied "while this is true that I will likely be a Clan head and your sister will be head of your clan if you can convince her to allow Naruto back that is just as good."

Kiba nodded and said "You're right Shino. It might be a bit harder but if I can do that that will help a lot.

(With Lee)

To get over the loss of his friend Lee did what Lee does best shout youth a lot and work out. He was still getting over his injuries he got from his fight with Gaara but had increased his training to get on the active ninja roster faster.

(Land of waves)

Naruto had first taken inventory of his weapons he got from his parents' house none of which were special except that the storage scroll in the basement had tons of unmarked hiraishin Kunai. As well as instructions on how to make more. The other scroll in the basement was a jutsu scroll that detailed how to learn and use the hiraishin. Naruto decided that once he was skilled enough then he would learn the hiraishin.

The rest of the scrolls fell in to a few major categories. Jutsu, training, technique, knowledge, sealing, and miscellaneous. Jutsu scrolls were scrolls that detailed how to learn and use a Jutsu. Training scrolls detailed different training methods to get different results. Technique scrolls detailed different types and styles of taijutsu and kenjutsu and how to learn then. Knowledge scrolls mostly detailed history, math, science, and other school subjects. Sealing scrolls were scrolls that showed different seals and there uses. The miscellaneous scrolls were everything for random notes his parents made to their will. One scroll he got from his parents office was the scroll they stored there money in it had about 20 million ryo. He thought 'Well I guess being Hokage paid pretty well.'

The last scroll he dealt with was the one title in case of death. It in it he learned that Jiraiya was his God father. 'If I ever see him again then I am going to beat the shit out of him for leaving me all those years.' Each of his parents left a note for him in case they died. They made him happy to know again that his parents loved him no matter what and sad that he never got to meet them.

With all that he had learn and gone through he changed his plan a bit on what training he should do. He picked a fast and quick hitting taijutsu style that he would learn and changed his work out to fit that a bit more. He also decided that he needed to find some chakra paper and start working on his affinity.

Naruto thought 'I would like to start in the place where my mom was from. The letter she left me said she was originally from the village hidden in whirlpools. Based off the maps that I have that's an island off the east coast of the land of fire. I'll see if there is someone willing to take me there at the docks.'

(Land of waves)

Naruto had asked around a bit to see if there was any one he could charter a boat from to take him to the land of whirlpools. While Naruto was confident that he could sneak through the land of Fire as he had done a mission as border patrol, so he was familiar with how border patrols worked. He felt it would be best if he stayed out of the land of fire as much as possible.

He heard that there was one guy that might be willing to take him to the land of whirlpools but it would not be cheap. He was a man by the name of Ise who was and experienced sailor.

Naruto walked up to Ise and said "I am looking to find someone to take me to the Land of whirlpools"

Ise responded "I know how to get there but I doubt you have the money. Any way why would someone like you want to go there?"

Naruto responded "Name your price I have the money and why I am going is none of your business." Naruto decided it would be best to not say anything about his family it would be harder for people to find him that way.

Ise retorted "Well I guess it is none of my business why and its 100,000 ryo one way if you want me to come pick you back up then is another 100,000."

Naruto reached into his backpack and showed he had the money. Ise was surprised that some kid had that much cash. He sighed he hated the trip but that much money he could not turn down and said "Ok I'll take you there we leave at 8 am tomorrow." Naruto nodded in confirmation and walked to the market district.

(Wave market district)

In the market district Naruto started by getting some new equipment. His old stuff was second rate and commonly used. This happened because that was mostly all he could buy back in the leaf. Things got a bit better as Kakashi helped him get some better equipment but most of the stuff he still had was subpar.

The first thing Naruto went for was camping and survival equipment. The Land of waves had gotten better economically since the bridge had been built but most of the stuff was not as good as the equipment he could get in a hidden village. However better was still better, so Naruto got a new sleeping bag, winter jacket, light weight stove and fuel, water purifier, and light weight tent.

When Naruto went to the register to purchase the equipment the cashier and owner said "Wait I know you." At this Naruto tensed but before he could do anything the owner said "You were one of the ninja that help free us from Gato."

Naruto said sheepishly "Oh thanks I was just doing my job."

The owner said "No thank you, you really helped us I'll give you a discount on this stuff."

Naruto looked surprised. He had never been given a discount. Well except at Ichiraku when they would sometimes give him a free bowl. Naruto just muttered "thanks".

After that Naruto when and got some food and got about a month's worth of food. When he went to buy the stuff he got a discount like at the other store. Both times when he got the discount he had a happy feeling and thought 'is this what feels like to be appreciated.'

With that happy thought he when back to Tazuna's house where he spent the rest of the day getting ready for his trip.

(Next day at the Docks)

Naruto arrived at 7:30 am where he was supposed to and meet Ise who said. "Well once you pay you can go on board. There are still a few things we need to do before we leave but we are on schedule to leave at 8."

Naruto nodded and said "Ok here is your money. If you don't mind I will head on board." With that Naruto pulled out the 100,000 ryo and handed it to Ise. Who then said "You can ask any crew member which room is yours." Naruto walked on and after finding out which room was his he pull out some scrolls he would read while going to the Land of Whirl pools.

 **End of Chapter**

 **I would say that set up for this story is now done. There hasn't been much Naruto at this point but that will change starting next chapter.**

 **People have suggested I use a beta to help deal with the grammar. This is something I would like to do but I have not figured out how the beta system works here. If anyone knows and can explain it leave a review or send me a direct message. Till I get one set up I will be using a text to speech program I have to deal with the grammar. I have done this with chapters one and two and while I doubt they are perfect they should be a lot better.**


	3. Chapter 3 part 1

(Just off the coast of the Land of Whirlpools)

Naruto looked over the bow early in the morning. His trip to the Land of Whirlpools was almost over. Over the trip, he had mostly done two things one plan on what he wanted to do for his training and two what to do with his life.

He thought 'My goal was always to become Hokage, but now I really don't want that anymore. I am still unsure, but I will start with dealing with the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki are coming after me and Gaara and I can't let them win.'

His thought's continued 'after I am done in the Land of Whirlpools I'll go see Gaara.' Has he was finishing his thought Ise said "We will be making landfall shortly and we can't stay long. Are you sure that you don't need a ride back in a few weeks."

Naruto shook his head and said "No I'll be fine. And I'll be ready do get off when you land." Naruto then went to his room and grabbed is stuff and headed up to the deck to get ready to disembark.

(Coast of the Land of Whirlpools)

After carefully navigating through the Whirlpools the boat stopped 100 feet from the shoreline. Ise called out to Naruto "This is as close as I can get and you have to leave now."

Naruto nodded and jumped off and started to water walk to the shore. Ise thought 'So he's a shinobi, interesting.' And with that, he turned around and went back out to sea.

Naruto started to walk inland and soon found a road that led to a small town. 'If I remember correctly from the maps I read there are 10 small towns in the Whirlpool and all around the center, the Hidden Whirlpool Village. All of them should be abandoned but I should keep my guard up in case someone or something is here. After a quick look in the village he determined that there was nothing of interest and started walking towards the center of the island. The road Naruto was using was still intact but was obviously deteriorating with a lack of maintenance.

(Outskirts of the Hidden Whirlpool)

It had taken about half a day but now he was standing on the outskirts of the village Hidden in Whirlpools. The first and most obvious thing that he noticed was that it was destroyed, most of the buildings lay in ruins. Naruto noticed that there were some larger buildings that were still mostly standing. They looked to be the Uzumaki clan buildings and building of the Hidden Village's government. Naruto decided that he would start in those buildings to see if there was anything left of interest.

(Village center of Hidden Whirlpool)

Naruto looked up at what he believed to be the main administration building of the village. He entered and started to look around. On the upper floors of the building he found what looked like offices. Most of them were a mess with papers everywhere and smashed furniture.

In one of the offices, a piece of paper caught Naruto's eye. It had the symbol of the Hyuga clan. After reading it Naruto said out loud only to himself "So the Hyuga made a request to the Uzumaki clan to update the Caged Bird Seal, so it would only seal away the Byakugan and remove the ability of the main branch to inflict pain onto the side branch through the seal. I wonder if anyone made any progress. If they did then maybe I will be able to keep my promise to Neji." Naruto put the paper in is backpack he then looked around to see if there were any more papers about the Hyuga clan. Naruto found a few and added them to his backpack.

Naruto continued to explore the building until he determined that there was nothing left of interest and decided it would be best to set up camp for the night. As most other buildings were destroyed Naruto settled for setting up in one of the rooms in the administration building that was completely enclosed to the elements and also had an intact chair and table.

Naruto made dinner and pulled out a scroll he had decided to read first from his collection. It was a scroll detailing the taijutsu style of his father and Naruto was considering learning this style, but adding some modifications to it. Naruto knew that he was a lot more durable than his father, so Naruto was thinking of adding in more blocking moves to take advantage of this. Also, Naruto wanted to add more power strikes to the style. Naruto did like the fast paced nature of the fighting style and that wielding a kunai or tanto could easily be incorporated with minimal changes.

Naruto slowly went through the kata's of the style for now not doing any modifications just trying to get an idea of how the style felt. He did this for an hour before he called it a night and went to bed.

(Next day)

Naruto got up and left the administration building and headed to a large cluster of buildings of above average size. He was thinking that this was the Uzumaki clan compound. Once he got to the entrance he was proven correct with all the whirlpool symbols everywhere. The symbol was all over the village but this place had the most.

Naruto started exploring to see if there was anything of interest. Most of the buildings were empty and bare of anything. 'Well this place has been abandoned for decades, so there being nothing makes sense.' Naruto thought as he walked through the empty streets.

Naruto then came to the biggest of the buildings in the compound. After a short inspection of the door, it appeared that there was a seal on it. 'It looks kind of like the blood seals at my parent's house. Well, I guess there is only one thing to do.' With that, Naruto bit his thumb and smeared some blood on the seal and added chakra. Naruto heard a latch slip and turned the knob and pushed the door open. 'Well, it looks like I am enough of an Uzumaki to get in.'

Naruto started to explore to see what was in the building and if there was anything interesting. He found the clan library and was disappointed when he found nothing. 'Well, it seems that someone else from my clan had the same idea and cleared the place out. Oh well, at least it was likely other Uzumaki's.'

Naruto continued to see if there was anything when he stumbled into a very weird room. Naruto looked around it seemed that the entire room was covered in a very complex sealing matrix.

At the center of the matrix looked a little like some of the blood seals that he had seen and before Naruto thought too much about it he bit his thumb and applied blood and chakra. The matrix started to glow a light blue. Naruto quickly got up to before he could take a step he heard a voice from behind in the direction of the door. It said, "It's been a long time since anyone has activated that seal."

Naruto spun around and backed up and said "Who are you?" in a semi scared voice.

The now revealed man had long white hair and white goatee. He wore a long sleeve black robe that when down to the floor with the Uzumaki symbol on each shoulder. Over top the robe, he had a blue chest plate. He started to laugh and said, "Don't be afraid I mean you no harm." Naruto relaxed a bit but didn't let down his guard. The Man continued "Well I supposed I should introduce myself. I am Ashina Uzumaki former head of the Uzumaki clan. I made the seal you just activated."

Naruto asked, "What is it supposed to do?"

Ashina responded "You don't know? You just found a random seal and activated it having no idea what it would do?" Naruto glared at Ashina and Ashina chuckled a bit and said, "Oh don't be so mad I am just teasing you a little bit."

"Well, I supposed I should explain. But first, I will first have to determine if you are worthy of knowing." Ashina stated.

Naruto in a confused voice asked, "How do I do that?"

Ashina then asked, "Why did you come here?"

Naruto sat down feeling he would be talking for a while then said "Well I was banished from my village. Before I was banished I learned that my mom grew up here. I know that this place was destroyed but I still wanted to see it just to learn a bit about my lineage."

Ashina then replied, "So you hoped to learn about your mom's side of the family."

"Ya, I was also planning on staying for a bit to start my training. There is a group of very powerful shinobi that want to find me and kill me."

Ashina asked curiously "You don't seem like the type of person to have many enemies. So why are they after you?"

Naruto answered "I am the Jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox. The group is called Akatsuki and they are trying to collect all the tailed beasts."

Ashina looked shocked and said "Why would they do something like that. Do you know what they are planning?"

Naruto shook his head and replied "I don't know. I don't even know if anyone outside of the Akatsuki knows their plans."

Ashina said, "So you are training to protect yourself?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yes but not just myself. I don't know if you know how Jinchuuriki are treated, but we are mostly shunned and ignored, and that's at the best of times. Not too long ago I met another Jinchuuriki his name is Gaara and he had it much worse than me. His tailed beast drove him insane and his father tried to kill him six times. After I fought him and beat him he started to get his life turned around and I consider him a friend. He is the only person I have met that understands what it is like to be shunned and hated by everyone you see. I don't just plan to protect myself I plan to help Gaara and any other Jinchuuriki I can. I have realized one thing that Jinchuuriki have to stick together because if we don't then sometimes no one will."

Ashina nodded and said, "What if I told you I could help you train."

Naruto looked up at Ashina hopefully and said, "You would help me?"

Ashina nodded and said "Of course I wouldn't be much of an Uzumaki if I turned down a fellow Uzumaki in need. I'll tell you how this will work but not here." After he said that a door opened out of the wall. Naruto looked in all he could see was black. Ashina said, "Follow me."

(Not too far away)

A pair of slitted eyes watched the interaction between the two Uzumakis. Then a voice came from near the eyes and said "It seems an Uzumaki as returned here and has been let into the Uzumaki training vault. How interesting boss will what to know about this." With a puff of smoke, the eyes were gone.

(Back with Naruto)

Naruto watched as Ashina walked up to and then through the door of darkness. Naruto looked at it for a second and then followed. Once his eyes had passed through the blackness Naruto saw something he was not expecting. It was a massive library with many rows of books and tables to work at.

Ashina then said "Now that I have let you in I will explain what this is. This is a pocket dimension that was created by the Uzumaki clan to safeguard our secrets. How this is done is by making only an Uzumaki able to activate the seal to get in but also, there is a guard to make sure only those worthy of entering can come in. I am the current guardian of the 'training vault' as we have decided to call it. I am not actually real I am a projection of my memory that I have encoded into the seal that created this place."

Naruto gave a confused look and said, "I don't get it?"

Ashina said, "Don't worry it's just some complicated seal thing, that I will explain to you when you are ready."

Naruto nodded still confused and said, "If you say so."

"Now we should talk about your training. I can only really help you with sealing and maybe a bit with jutsu but everything else you will have to do on your own."

Naruto responded enthusiastically because now the topic was something he understood. "Yes I already have a plan it's not complete, but its most of the way there. I got a bunch of scrolls before I left my village. I have picked out a taijutsu style that I want to learn, I also would like to start to work on my elemental affinity, get better chakra control, and work on my physical conditioning. One of the jutsu that I am really good at is the shadow clone jutsu. One of the interesting things about shadow clones is that they have physical form and when they dispel their memories return to me. I was thinking that it may be possible to increase the speed at which I train if I use lots of shadow clones."

Ashina nodded interestingly and replied "That sounds like an interesting idea that you should try. I think it would work best for things like jutsu, elemental manipulation, and chakra control, and learning from books. However I will not teach a shadow clone I will only teach the original."

Naruto nodded in agreement and thought about it for a minute trying to come up with a plan and when it did he said "How about in the mornings I will make a bunch of shadow clones that work on the things they can outside, as I don't think this place is the best for learning jutsu and they will do that all day and in the evening I will dispel them. Original me will do the physical training I need to do in the mornings and then in the afternoon and evening, I can learn sealing from you. If I still have some chakra I can make clones that will read books and scrolls in the afternoon."

Ashina said "That sounds like a very intense plan but you have vast reserves of chakra so it might just work. Just be sure to start with only a few shadow clones and build up so you don't overdo yourself and pass out for a few days."

Naruto nodded in seeing Ashina point. Naruto was pleased that there was a plan for his training. Naruto then asked, "there wouldn't happen to be any chakra paper here I don't know what my affinity is."

Ashina nodded "There is some in one of the supply rooms. I'll give you a quick tour so you know your way around. Then at the end you can find out what your affinity is." Naruto nodded and followed the tour was pretty quick as there was not much to show. During the tour Ashina showed Naruto the various sections of the library, a small kitchen area, and a few amenities that were available.

They ended it at one of the supply rooms. They both walked in and Ashina pointed out a small box. Naruto when and opened it, inside was a bunch of small papers. Naruto pulled one out and then put the box back. He then ran some chakra through the paper and it violently ripped in half.

Ashina noted "So you're a wind type. They are not that common for our clan Uzumakis are mostly water types."

Naruto nodded and was about to say something when a yawn escaped him. Ashina chuckled and said "looks like you are getting tired it has been a long day for you. How about you get to bed and we can start your training in the morning."

Naruto nodded and was about to go when a thought hit him. "Where should I sleep most of the city is destroyed, so I don't think I can stay there."

Ashina thought for a minute and said "While this place is not really setup for someone to live in here most of the amenities you need are here like a bathroom and a kitchen. Your best option is probably to pick a spot and sleep there."

Naruto nodded not liking sleeping on the floor but since he didn't have any other ideas he realized it would have to do. "Also, I only have about one month's worth of food any ideas on where to stock up."

Ashina thought for a minute and said "I can give you instructions on how to navigate through the whirlpools while water walking. If you go straight to the mainland and a bit north there should be a town I don't think it is that big since the destruction of this village but it should have everything you need. So once a month you will have a break from training and go to the village and resupply."

Naruto nodded now that the plan for his training had been flushed out he was happy. "Well, it seems that everything is planned out so I am going to go to sleep."

(One month later)

Naruto had just crossed the water and was now in the land of fire. He had transformed so that no passing leaf shinobi could recognize him. Naruto also thought that at this point no one would give him much of a second glance as he was in a very remote part of the land of fire.

Naruto started to think about all the training he was doing as he walked north. His day started out with waking up at 5 am and eating breakfast then he would exit the vault and make shadow clone he started with only 10 and increased it and soon found his limit to be about 80 clones per day. After making the clones he would do physical exercises. He also did a bit of ninja training with throwing kunai and shuriken while doing various maneuvers. At noon he would leave his clones and go back to the vault and eat lunch. After lunch he would work with Ashina on sealing till 7 then eat dinner and then dispel his clones. Naruto dispelled his clones 5 at a time every minute so the mental burden of the clones didn't hit him so hard. He would then go to bed usually too tired to do much else.

In just the one month Naruto was making lots of progress he almost mastered the wind element something that took some people years to do. And his control over chakra had also improved he was thinking that in a month or so he may be able to do the rasengan one handed. He had also had a small growth spurt going from 4' 10'' to 5' even still a bit short for his age but not by much. He had also burned off what little baby fat he still and was starting to get a more muscular build.

(Land of fire)

The town was now coming into view and he noticed it was not that big of a town but it was not small had about 5 to 7 thousand people living in it. Naruto thought this was perfect as it was small enough to be out of the way but big enough that he could go unnoticed.

When Naruto got to the town the first thing Naruto did was go restock on food as that was the most important thing. When he went to the grocery store he sighed and pulled out a list that Ashina had told him he was supposed to buy. Ashina was not happy when he learned that Naruto mostly had ramen for food and told him if he was going to get training he would have to buy healthier food. Some of the first seals that Ashina had Naruto learn were modifications of the basic enclosing seal to do special things. One of the seals he learned could keep things like meat, vegetables and fruit fresh for over a month. So now Naruto had no excuse for eating poorly he had more than enough money and the ability to keep good food for a very long time.

Naruto quickly paid for the food and left. He went to a side street that no one was on and sealed everything he got into the scrolls he brought and moved on to the next thing he needed to buy.

The next place Naruto went was a clothing store to update his wardrobe. While he still liked his orange jacket and pants they were starting to get a bit small and worn out. So he picked out a simple outfit that would work for his training of a black t-shirt and black cargo pants. 'I would have liked to get some real shinobi gear but this town doesn't have a shinobi store. I will just have to go to a hidden village and get new gear after I finish my training.' Naruto thought has he left the clothing store now in his new outfit.

The next store was a home supply store where Naruto bought a futon and some other stuff so that would make staying in the vault easier.

(A dark cave unknown location)

One hologram of what looked like a person appeared. Shortly after the first came eight more came.

The one that held himself like the leader said, "Has anyone got any information on Komei?"

A man with red Sclera and green pupil said, "I have heard the small rumors about him but nothing that we can do anything about."

When no one else said anything the leader glared and said "He needs to be found he is the same priority as the Jinchuuriki he knows too much to be left alive. Now I want a report on the Jinchuuriki."

They were standing in a circle and one of them spoke "The nine tails has been banished from the hidden leaf. He disappeared and we have been unable to track him. Not even the hidden leaf knows where he is." The man who spoke could barely be identified as a man. His face was split into two colors and there was a strange plan like appendage that surrounded his head.

The leader then said "This is a problem but not insurmountable. We still have three years till we can seal away any of the tailed beasts. It will be a few more years till the three tails reforms, so those two are unaccounted for. Have you all tracked down the other Jinchuuriki?"

The red and green eyed man said "The seven tails is still in its village and the five tails roams the Land of earth. I have a spy tracking his movements." The leader nodded

A man with a bang of hair covering one eye and ponytail said "The one tails is still in his village. He is sent out on missions so we will need to watch when he goes out on mission to capture him."

A hunched over man next to him said "The two tails is in the same situation as the one tails. She mostly takes solo missions and we can time our strike to when she is out of the village. The eight tails doesn't leave the village much as the Raikage likes to keep him close to the village in case of attack." The leader nodded.

A man that almost looked like a shark said, "The four tails is in the same situation to the five however he is more allusive and we are trying to pin down his exact location."

A shorter man next to the shark with red eyes with three black spots in each said "Rumor has it that the one and nine tails are friends it is possible that he will seek asylum in the sand. I will start my investigation for him there. Also, he has ties to the Lands of Waves, waterfall, and spring. He may also seek asylum in those countries."

He then said, "Has anyone heard anything about the six tails?"

The plant man said "He ran away from the mist when an operation to change his seal went wrong and he killed his sensei. Currently, I am tracking a group of Mist ANBU tasked with bringing him back now that the civil war in the mist is over."

The leader now not very happy that now four tailed beasts were not tracked down said "We have three years to find them. You all have your assignments and I want those Jinchuuriki and Komei tracked down as fast as possible."

(With Sakura)

Sakura was currently working on medical ninjutsu. After Sakura had stopped crying over Naruto's banishment and Sasuke's defection she had convinced Tsunade to take her on as an apprentice. Sakura thought back on that conversation.

Flashback

Sakura walked into Tsunade's office and said, "I would like to become your apprentice and learn Medical ninjutsu from you."

Tsunade looked at her for a minute and said "Why do you want this training. I am not just going to teach you because you think it will be fun or even think that you will be good at it. There are plenty of people who can teach you, so why me specifically?"

Sakura got a determined look on her face and said "I lost two teammates and I want to bring them back. I will admit that I am weak. I thought I knew what it took to be a ninja in the academy, but I was wrong. I thought all I need to be was smart and follow instructions. I now realize how wrong I was. I want to be strong. Strong enough to bring back both of my friends."

Tsunade nodded this was the answer that she wanted to here. She walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled out some scrolls. She walked up to Sakura and said "I want you to read through these and memorize the information. You will need to know it if you what to learn medical ninjutsu. Also, one contains a chakra control exercise I want you to master it. Once you have done these two things come back and we can start your real training. I expect you to be done in one week."

Sakura nodded and left the Hokage's office determined to complete the task given to her.

End flashback

Sakura continued to concentrate on the task Tsunade had given her. Tsunade was watching her student practice, mostly to get away from paperwork, was happy with how Sakura was doing. 'Her determination hasn't faltered and she is progressing faster than Shizune. She might just become a great medic at this rate.' Tsunade thought.

(With Shikamaru)

For the whole month, Shikamaru could not get the mystery of Naruto out of his head. He was now sitting in the chunin section of the library with a pile of notes, scrolls, and books in front of him.

The notes contained every think that he knew about Naruto. Some of the facts were sticking out to him. One Naruto's birthday was on the same day the nine tails attacked. Naruto was never at the academy on his birthday and the days before and after Naruto was a lot quieter. Naruto also never told anyone about his birthday. Something that surprised Shikamaru because based on Naruto's personality Shikamaru would have thought Naruto would be telling everyone about his birthday and act a lot happier. Shikamaru had learned about it when he heard Naruto and Iruka talk about it. Also the day after his birthday Naruto always looked more tired than usual and commonly had some scratches and bruises.

There was also Naruto's massive amounts of chakra. While in the academy he knew Naruto had a lot of chakra but after he graduated he learned that Naruto's were above an average Jonin's reserves. Something that is almost unprecedented. He learned about this when Ino was arguing with Choji soon after graduation.

(Flashback)

"I definitely have the most chakra of all of us," Choji said.

Ino retorted and said, "No Sasuke's an Uchiha and he definitely has the most."

Their conversation went back and forth going nowhere till Asuma showed up to start the team meeting. When he saw his two arguing students he sighed and said, "What are you two arguing about?"

Ino in an annoyed voice said, "Choji insists that he has the most chakra out of our class while it is clearly Sasuke." She said Sasuke in a dreamy voice.

Before Asuma thought about it too much he said "Well your both wrong Naruto has the most out of all your class. If I remember the file on him correctly he has about as much chakra as I do." He said this while looking off into space not realizing that he wasn't supposed to tell his students that.

Ino then shouted, "No way he can't even do make a clone how can he have that much chakra."

Asuma then realized what he had done and tried to redirect the conversation. "Well, it mostly has to do with chakra control since he has so much it's hard to control it. You can have all the chakra in the world but if you can't control it you won't be able to cast jutsu. Which leads to today's training tree walking." Asuma patted himself on the back mentally for coming up with such a great redirect and then started on his students training.

(End flashes back)

Shikamaru pulled out one of the books he had collected, it was about tailed beasts. He opened it up and read the table of contents and one of the chapter names caught his eye. It was titled Jinchuuriki. Shikamaru looked at it for a second and thought 'Jinchuuriki that means Power of Human Sacrifice. I wonder what that is all about.' Shikamaru opened to that chapter and started to read.

The first thing he found was the definition of Jinchuuriki as a person who is the container for the storage of a tailed beast. Shikamaru was shocked that something like that was even possible and continued to read. He later read how tailed beasts could not be destroyed so the only way to defeat them was to seal them away. That's when it clicked for Shikamaru 'That explains everything. From how he was treated to his unusual chakra supplies.' Shikamaru thought as he continued to read after an hour he had a read everything there was to read.

He got up put the books back and collected his things he and walked out. He had to go talk to some people about this.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade was happy for once the last month had been hell. Several of the countries Naruto had helped in the past were not happy with his banishment. One country the land of snow now the land of spring had cut off all trade with the land of fire over this. None of the others did this but stated that they would be looking elsewhere to have their missions done. While this was annoying there weren't enough to make that much of a difference. Tsunade was happy because Sakura was making fast progress. Tsunade thought 'Sakura just might be able to surpass me one day.'

While thinking about the training she was going to give Sakura she heard a knock on the door. She then called out "come in." After that the door open and Shikamaru stepped in.

Tsunade then said, "Is there something you need Shikamaru." 'It's not like Shikamaru to come to my office to talk and he usually looks bored now he looks kind of mad. I wonder what's going on to get him so worked up.' Tsunade thought with a hint of curiosity.

Shikamaru walked in and took a deep breath and began to speak "I have been thinking a lot about Naruto recently. There something that everyone wasn't telling us."

Tsunade leaned forward in her chair and was thinking 'so it seems he has either figured it out or he is going to demand some answers let's see where this goes.'

Shikamaru continued "So he's the Jinchuuriki of the nine tails." Tsunade then said, "Yes, so you figured it out."

Shikamaru then gave a quick explanation of how he came to his conclusion. Tsunade then asked, "Does this change how you feel about him?"

Shikamaru then sighed "Well it makes him more troublesome but he is still my friend and I will help him." Tsunade smiled but then got serious and said. "Not long after Naruto was born Sarutobi sensei made a law that no one could tell anyone that did not know of his status which is why your generation doesn't know of it. I was planning to have Naruto tell you all when everyone became a chunin but well that might not happen at this rate. By the way, the law technically doesn't apply to the Hokage or Naruto, but it does apply to you I would like you to keep this a secret."

Shikamaru nodded and left the Hokage's office thinking about troublesome blonds making things complicated.

End of chapter

I am still looking for advice on how to do a set up a beta, so any suggestions are welcome.


	4. Chapter 4 part 2

I don't own Naruto

(Year and a half after Naruto's banishment)

Naruto was walking from the Land of whirl pools to the Land of fire going over in his head all that he had done and how much he had grown since he had started training.

Naruto had grown while training going from 4' 10'' to now stating at 5' 4''. His body was now well muscled but not overly bulky. Naruto's conditioning had improved greatly mostly because he started to use resistance seals. These seals increased the resistance his body had to deal with so that Naruto could release them and get a boost in both speed and strength. These seals were very convenient as they would increase their resistance on their own. They would increase in small increments and only when Naruto's body was ready for them to. This meant that Naruto didn't have to worry about adjusting and that if Naruto was ever injured or sick they would deactivate or lower their level on their own so that Naruto could still move. Once a week Naruto would deactivate them and train without them so that he was use to his speed and strength without them on.

Naruto's taijutsu had also improved successfully modifying his father's fighting style. It was still a bit rough but with experience, he would be fine.

He had learned a lot about sealing jutsu while not a master he wasn't far way. With experience and time, he would get there. There was little he could not do with seals and if there was something he couldn't do strait away given enough time he could figure it out.

He had mastered the wind element and was competent with water. He had not mastered water it but was able to use some C and B rank jutsu in a fight if needed. Naruto had also mastered the rasengan and could do it one handed as well as make it bigger. Naruto was thinking that Learning earth next would be good so that he could do defensive jutsu and the surface hiding technique.

Naruto's chakra level had also grown a lot. He had the most chakra of his class including his senseis, but with making over 100 shadow clones a day for a year and a half his level was now on par with shinobi like Jiraiya. With the increased chakra levels Naruto had increased the number of clones per day he could make for training from 80 to 250.

Although Naruto had made a lot of progress in Ninjutsu he was a bit disappointed that he didn't get as far as he wanted. This was mostly because early on he had decided to focus more clones on the library then in training, but Naruto ended up reading through much of was available that was relevant to him. Naruto decided that he would focus more on his Jutsu once he started to train again. Naruto had also improved his chakra control a lot so that it wouldn't hold him back.

He then started to think about the next things he wanted to learn. 'I have gotten better a lot better but I can't beat an S rank ninja. If I want to help save my friends and beat the Akatsuki I'll need to get better. I think at the next things I should do are complete the rasengan, learn the Hiraishin, and continue to learn elemental jutsu. Also, there is that task that Ashina gave me.'

Ashina had given Naruto a very complicated seal that he had to undo and he told him that once he had done that to come back to the vault.

(Land of fire)

Naruto continued to think about this as he got to the mainland. Then his mind started think about where he was going to go next. 'I should go see Gaara and see how he is doing maybe I could fix his seal so that the one tail isn't bothering him too much. It would be fastest to cut across the land of fire but that might not end well for me. I should probably go around through all the minor countries just to be safe.'

Naruto started to head north to the boarder with the Land of hot water. The Land of Hot Water was demilitarized with no hidden village with in its boarders. There were basically no border patrols from the Leaf in that area, so it was easy for Naruto to slip past the boarder where he started to head north to the boarder with the Land of Rice Patties.

After about an hour of travel in the Land of Hot Water, a cloaked figure appeared in his path. Naruto stopped and looked at the man. He was the man that Naruto had met the night he left the leaf. Naruto continued till he was about 30 feet away when the man said, "Well it looks like you have grown up a bit and gotten stronger."

Naruto then said "Ya, I have been training very hard. Why are you here?"

The cloaked man pulled down his hood and sat on the tree branch he was standing on and said, "Well this is just a happy coincidence I was heading to the land of lighting to deal with some stuff when I sensed your chakra and decided to come say hi."

Naruto decided not to sit down but let his guard down a bit and leaned against the tree he was standing on and asked. "Why did you help me before I left the village?"

The man responded "Well I heard about what was happening and I was in the area. I thought you could use some help. Plus, I thought you could make an interesting ally."

Naruto still suspicious of the man asked, "Who are you and why did you want me as an ally?"

The man said, "How about this you answer my question and I'll answer your questions and tell you a bit about me." Naruto now very suspicious nodded.

The cloaked figure then asked, "What are your plans for the future and what do you intend on doing with the Akatsuki?"

Naruto responded "I plan a beating the Akatsuki and stopping whatever their plan is. Beyond that, I don't know but I will do my best to bring whatever amount of good to this world I can."

The man smiled and said "Good now that I know that we are on the same page I will tell you my name. My name is Komei Hagoromo. I am from the Mist but I left during the blood line purges, because of my Kekkei Genkai. Even though the purges have ended and the current Mizukage has bloodlines herself I don't really feel like going back."

"Why not go back?" Naruto asked.

"That's a long story that should never be told. But anyway back to the Akatsuki." Komei said redirecting the conversation.

Naruto relaxed little and asked, "So you're the fighting the Akatsuki?"

Komei responded "Yes, they are collecting all the tailed beasts. They are planning to use them to take over the world. Also, I have reason to believe that the Akatsuki are at least in some way responsible for starting the bloodline purges, but I don't have much of a lead on it. I will be up front with you right now the Akatsuki tried to recruit me and when they told me they were collecting tailed beasts I decided to join. I did that mostly because I wanted to learn more about what they're plans are. I also figured out that their leader is fucking insane and would likely kill most of the human population and enslave everyone he didn't kill if his plans are completed."

Komei's face got very serious and he said "The thing that scares me the most is that if he got all the tailed beasts he could probably go through with his plans. Once I figured that out I got all the intel on the Akatsuki I could then I left that organization."

Naruto nodded a bit shocked at all the Komei had told him. Komei continued "Anyway how about I tell you a bit about myself. I am the last living member of the Hagoromo Clan. I specialize in high kinetic energy weapons using my magnet style Kekkei Genkai. I was a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and I wield the sword Sewing Needle." Naruto nodded.

Komei continued putting a serious face on "We can't exactly be partners as you cannot come with me, but any information I get on the Akatsuki or other threats I will pass on to you. Now part of my plan to stop the Akatsuki is to prevent them from getting any Jinchuuriki. I would like you to go to the hidden waterfall and see if there Jinchuuriki is safe if she isn't then think of something to help her. The waterfall is the weakest village that has a Jinchuuriki as such she is in the most vulnerable position. She is a girl around your age with mint green hair and her name is Fuu."

Naruto nodded "I know the leader of the hidden waterfall. I'll talk to him about it and make sure that she is safe."

Komei motioned for Naruto to come over. Naruto jumped to the branch that Komei was sitting on. Komei pulled a book out and handed it to Naruto. "What's this?" Naruto asked.

Komei answered "It's a Bingo book of all known Akatsuki members and associates as well as everything I know about them. It's not complete as most of them have been staying off the grid for a while and things have likely changed since I left. You can pass that information on to whoever you think will need it, but don't go passing this to every stranger you meet it will draw attention to yourself."

Naruto nodded and he said, "I am pretty good at this point but I doubt I can take on an S-rank ninja."

Komei nodded and said "That's fine for now they won't be making there move to capture the Jinchuuriki for another year and a half or so I am looking into if I can delay them at all but it doesn't seem likely at this point. You have time but we should set up our plan to counter them and get ready. Once I hear where they will strike I'll send you a message."

Naruto nodded and took the book and started to flip through the pages. He stopped when he got to a guy that was half black and half white that had a Venus fly trap projection over his head. "What they hell is this guy?" Naruto said and showed Komei the page.

Komei laughed and said "That's Zetsu and no one really knows what he is. He has a split personality the white half nice and friendly, but black half is bit of a dick. I don't know what any of his abilities are except that his white half can make clones of himself that can replace him if necessary but the black half can't. He can split in half and the black and white half's can work separately from each other. His clones can all communicate over large distances quickly. I don't know how good of a fighter he is, as he mostly works as a spy for the Akatsuki. I don't think he is that good at fighting but just be aware that he is out there and could cause some issues."

Naruto nodded and said, "Well it doesn't look like this is going to be easy, but we will just have to deal with it and fight them."

Komei smiled and said, "So where are you going to go now?"

Naruto replied "Well first I am going to go to the Hidden Waterfall and check on both Fuu and Shibuki. After that head to the Sand to see Gaara. Then I'll find a place to train till the Akatsuki come out. I may head back to the Whirlpool it's out of the way so it would be hard for the Akatsuki to find me."

Komei pulled out a scroll and said "This is a map to an old military base that I found. The country it was for no longer exists and now it's just an empty corner of the Land of wind. It is secluded enough that you should be able to train there with no issue. I was planning on turning it into a base of operations to deal with the Akatsuki. It's a bit far from a town which is a bit inconvenient but it's so far out of the way that being found is not likely."

Naruto opened the scroll and looked at it "It's a lot closer to the Sand then coming back to the Whirlpool and I won't have to deal with going into the land of Fire. I think I'll go there."

"Cool save me a room I'll be coming by there in a couple of months once I have finished some preparations that I'll tell you about in the future," Komei said.

Komei got up and shook Naruto's hand then they both went their separate ways.

Naruto continued to the boarder of the land of Rice Patties and the land of Hot Water. Naruto encountered no difficulty on his way to the boarder.

(Land of Rice patties)

Naruto had just entered the land of rice patties when he started to sense a battle. While Naruto was no sensory type he could detect if there was a battle happening.

Naruto decided to head over to the battle and see what was happening by the time he got there it wasn't much of a battle there were three dead ninja and five living ones. Four of them were wearing standard sound uniforms. They surrounded the last ninja. A girl who was about the same age as Naruto with long orange hair and a dark blue beany. She was wearing a grey ninja vest and dark green ninja shorts.

Naruto could tell that the girl was neither experienced nor skilled at being a ninja. He could tell this by the way she held her self and that she was shaking in fear at being surrounded by the four sound ninja. She didn't even have a kunai out to defend herself.

The four sound ninja where standing around the girl and talking about what they should do with her. The leader said "Look we are just going to kill her and be done with it. She is weak and wouldn't survive one minute in Orochimaru's lab. I am just going to kill her." The other three nodded and the one that spoke pulled out a kunai to kill the girl.

Seeing that they were going to kill the girl Naruto sprang into action and charging in and putting a rasengan in the back of the leader. Before the other three could act Naruto pulled out a kunai from a seal on his wrist and shoved into the chest of one of the sound ninja next to him giving the sound ninja a fatal wound. The last two jumped away to get some distance from Naruto.

Naruto ignoring the fact that he had just had his first two kills went through a string of hand signs and said 'Wind style: great breakthrough'. Sending a powerful wave of condensed wind chakra at one of the remaining sound ninja. This slammed the sound ninja into a boulder snapping his neck killing him instantly.

The last sound ninja pulled out a hand full of shuriken and threw them at Naruto. Naruto rolled out of the way and summoned four kunai in each hand from the seal on is forearm and charged all of them with wind chakra and through them in a spread that the sound ninja couldn't dodge. Two of the kunai hit one in the right shoulder and another in the stomach. The last ninja fell and quickly bleed out.

The engagement didn't last longer than about 45 seconds, but at the end, Naruto had racked up his first four kills.

When he was done he started to walk over to the girl who started to panic thinking Naruto might hurt her. When Naruto saw this he stopped and gave her a warm smile and said, "Don't worry I am not going to hurt you." She visibly relaxed and Naruto walked forward and said in a calm voice "Are you alright?" Naruto held out his hand offering to help her up.

She took his hand and got up. "My name is Sasame Fuma thanks for saving me." She said in a timid voice. Naruto gave her another warm smile and said "Nice to meet you Sasame. My name is Menma Uzumaki." Naruto gave her a fake name so It would be harder for the Akatsuki to find him.

Feeling calmer now that the threat was gone she said "Thanks for saving me, but why did you step in."

Naruto responded "I don't exactly like the sound village they have hurt me and my friends in the past. Also, I just couldn't stand by and watch you get killed I couldn't live with myself if I did that."

Naruto then said, "Do you know who the other three are?"

Sasame nodded "We are all members of the Fuma clan."

Naruto nodded and then Sasame said "It's going to be dark soon and there's no town nearby. You can stay with my clan for the night if you like. They don't like outsiders but since you saved me they won't mind."

Naruto smiled and said "Thanks, I would appreciate it. I'll go put the bodies of your clansmen in a scroll so we can take them back to get a proper burial." Sasame nodded sadly now remembering that three of her family had been killed.

Naruto quickly collected the bodies and then walked off with Sasame.

(Outside Fuma clan compound)

As Naruto and Sasame were approaching the compound. Four figures appeared out of nowhere. The lead one said "Sasame who is this and where are Kamikiri, Kagero, and Jigumo."

Sasame responded "This is Menma Uzumaki and Kamikiri, Kagero, and Jigumo are dead. We were attack by some sound ninja and they were killed. Menma stepped in and saved me before I was killed."

Naruto then said, "I have their bodies sealed in this scroll." While showing the scroll that contained the three bodies.

The lead one said "Dam we lost three more to the sound. Well, thank you Menma for saving Sasame and bringing their bodies back. Most of the time we don't get the bodies back either they are captured or the bodies are taken. They do that so they can experiment on them. Anyway, we shouldn't think about such awful things right now. I presume that she offered you a place to sleep for the nigh?"

Sasame said, "Yes Arashi I know we don't normal let in outsiders but he saved me and there was nowhere else for him to to go."

Arashi said "It's ok if he helped you then its ok if he stays here for a while. If he stayed out in the wild the sound would likely come and try to capture you. We should go and see our leader Hanzaki."

With that, the six of them headed into the compound.

(Inside Fuma compound)

When Naruto enter the compound he noted that most of the buildings were in disrepair and run down a bit, but all seemed like they were built well enough that they wouldn't fall down any time soon.

He was lead to the largest building. Arashi lead Naruto and Sasame to the head of the Fuma clan when they entered Arashi said "Sasame has returned but Kamikiri, Kagero, and Jigumo are all dead. They were killed by some sound ninja. This is Menma Uzumaki he intervened in time to save Sasame."

"Dam that isn't good the sound has really been pushing use lately and I don't know how much longer we can last. Well, we can think about such morbid things later." The clan head said "Menma Uzumaki was it, well thank you for saving Sasame. It's late and you can stay the night here if you want."

"Thank You Hanzaki-san. Also, I have the bodies of you fallen clansmen in this scroll." Naruto said as he pulled out the scroll that contained the bodies and handed it to Hanzaki.

"Thank you now they can get proper burials. We have already served dinner but you and Sasame can go to the kitchen and make some dinner." The Clan head responded.

Naruto said "Thanks."

Naruto and Sasame went into the kitchen and they went over to look at what they could make. Sasame said, "I don't really know how to cook, so I don't really know what we should make."

Naruto then said "Don't worry I know how to. Let's just do something basic how does fried rice sound."

Sasame said, "That sounds fine."

Naruto quickly made the fried rice and he and Sasame sat at a table in a large mess hall to eat.

After a little bit, Naruto asked, "So why are the sound trying so hard to destroy your clan."

Sasame sighed and said "It's a long story so I'll start from the beginning. Most of the shinobi clans in the land of rice patties were nearly destroyed during a war of expansion that our daimyo forced us to do. Where we invaded the land of hot water to the east and the land of woods to the west. The war was a complete failure and many of the shinobi clans were almost destroyed. Not too long ago Orochimaru started to create the hidden sound village. All of the shinobi clans were asked to join the sound village. Half of my clan saw it as a way of regaining past glory while the other half saw through Orochimaru's deception and refused to join. So our clan split half with him and half stayed independent. Orochimaru sees us as a possible threat as we know some of his secrets from those who changed their mind once they saw what Orochimaru was doing. So while he hasn't sent his full power at us he has made it impossible for us to get out of the country to ask for help. He also likes to experiment on those he captures."

Naruto nodded and said "Ya where ever that snake bastard goes death and trouble follows. Is there anything you know I could do to help?"

Sasame seemed surprised and said, "You would help us fight Orochimaru."

Naruto nodded and said "Of course you aren't the only one who what to see that bastard taken down. Orochimaru killed the man I saw as a grandfather and he has hurt many others close to me."

Sasame then said, "I don't know, but Hanzaki-sama might have some ideas."

Naruto nodded and said, "I'll ask him tomorrow before I leave." With that, they finished their meal and put the dirty dishes in the sink. Sasame then lead Naruto to a spare room when they both went to bed.

Naruto tried to get some sleep but he couldn't whenever he was close to sleep he would remember that he had killed for the first time earlier that day and he would become fully awake again. After a while, Naruto gave up on trying to sleep and decided that a walk around and some fresh air would do him some good. After a bit of walking around the compound, he sat under a tree and looked up at the stars.

After a while, one of the clan members he had met when he arrived came up and sat next to him.

Arashi asked, "Can't sleep?" Naruto nodded and said, "I just can't get the thought out of my head that I kill someone to day."

Arashi nodded and asked, "Was it your first time killing."

Naruto nodded and said, "I have been in life or death fights before but I have never killed."

Arashi replied and said "I know I only met you a few hours ago, but do you want to talk about it. It will likely make you feel better and it won't make you feel worse."

Naruto shrugged and said, "I would but I don't even know where to start."

"Well then how about I start. When I had my first kill it was kind of like you I couldn't get it out of my head and I didn't know how to feel about it. After a while I started to focus more on why I killed then the act of killing. My first time I did it was to protect one of my friends from a bandit. For me, at least the reason I seek to become stronger is to be able to protect my friends and family. Sometimes that means that I have to do things I don't want to do like kill. But if I don't do what is necessary to protect them I am failing to live up to my promise to protect them. By not killing I am saying that the life of someone else is more important to me than keeping the promise to protect those who are precious to me." Arashi said.

They sat in silence for a bit and then Naruto got up and started to walk away. Arashi then called out "where are you going?"

Naruto replied "Back to bed" as he walked away with a yawn.

Arashi chuckled and thought 'Well it looks like I helped.'

(The next day)

Naruto got up later then he had in a long time and feeling a lot better than he did yesterday. He thought back on what Arashi told him 'Arashi is right sometimes protecting the things I care about means that I have to do things I don't like. I don't ever want to be the type of person that likes to kill, but I will do what is necessary to protect those I care about.' Even though Arashi was a stranger to Naruto he had helped him a lot.

Naruto got out of bed and packed his stuff up and got ready to go. After everything was packed he left his room and went to see if Hanzaki was free to talk.

When Naruto got to Hanzaki's office he saw that Hanzaki was free so he knocked on the door. Hanzaki called out "come in."

Naruto entered and sat in one of the chairs in the office. Naruto then said "I talked to Sasame last night about the sound. I was wondering if there is anything I could do to help you."

Hanzaki thought about it for a minute Sasame had told him that Naruto had his own reasons for fighting against the sound and that they were similar to his own. "Do you think you could get a message to the hidden leaf for me? Every time I try and send one of my men they end up getting killed by the sound."

Naruto nodded and said, "It might take a while but I can do that."

Hanzaki smiled and quickly wrote up a letter and handed it to Naruto. Naruto took the letter and said "I'll get this to the leaf as fast as possible, but can you do me a favor and not tell the leaf I was here. It's not that I dislike the leaf but the fewer people who know where I am the better."

Hanzaki was curious to why he would ask for that, but decided against pursuing that line of conversation and said, "Thank you and I won't tell them you were here."

Naruto nodded and then left the Fuma compound. He moved more stealthily through the land of rice patties then he normally otherwise would have, so that no sound shinobi would find him and get in his way. Since he was moving slowly it took him a day and a half to get out of the Land of Rice Patties.

(Land of woods)

The land of woods did have a minor hidden village, so Naruto decided it would be best he if took normal traveling routs to avoid any unnecessary attention. Naruto didn't want to deal with other Ninja.

While he did this he started to think of how best to get the letter to the hidden leaf. 'The fastest way to get it to the leaf would be to just take it there, but that is out of the question as I could be killed on site for being anywhere near the leaf. I wonder if Shibuki could get the letter to the leaf for me. Last I knew the leaf and waterfall were allies so getting a message to the leaf is something that Shibuki should be able to do. Ya that will work then it can just play it off as the waterfall working as the go between and I can stay out of sight.'

Naruto continued to pass through the land of woods without incident.

(Land of Rice Patties)

In a large dark room, all that could be seen were two blood red eyes with 3 black marks in each eye. Just below the eyes a burst of light came and the sound of birds chirping. The light revealed a boy in his mid-teens with Black hair and wearing only a pair of purple pants with a large purple rope as a belt. This was Sasuke Uchiha and he was currently training trying to adapt the Chidori into new jutsu.

Now in the darkness again he pointed his hand at one of the training dummies and thought 'Chidori Spear' and a spear of lightning came out of his hand and it impaled the dummy. He thought 'perfect this is the power I need to kill my brother. Soon I'll be able to deal with Orochimaru as well. If he thinks I came here, just to hand over my body to him he's an idiot. Soon his body will start to break down and weaken just like the last one and once he is at his weakest I'll kill him and go after my brother.'

Sasuke retracted the lightning spear and continued to think, 'I'll need a team in order to deal with my brother as his Akatsuki friends are not likely to just let me kill him. The idiot suigetsu will be good he is very skilled, so he will be a good to take.'

Sasuke decided that he was finished training for the day because he was low on chakra he continued to think. 'She might be a massive pain in the ass but Karin is a medic and possibly the best sensory ninja on the planet she will be worth taking. If I can control Jugo like Kimimaro used to be able to I'll take him if I can't I'll just kill him.'

As Sasuke was walking back to his room he saw Kabuto walking towards him and Sasuke thought 'He is probably off to do one of his hideous experiments.'

Once they were close Kabuto said, "So how was your training Sasuke?" Sasuke just grunted "Hn" and continued walking in the other direction.

Kabuto smirked and thought to himself 'He thinks we don't know he is planning on betraying us once Orochimaru is weak but that won't be an issue even at his weakest no one can stand against lord Orochimaru.'

End of chapter

Well at least now you all get to know a bit more about the cloaked dude. To his ability with kinetic energy weapons if you don't get what I am talking about look up what a rail gun is. That's what I am basing his ability on. Also for magnet style I am changing it from wind and earth to lightning and earth. Anyone who knows about Biot–Savart law and how rail guns work will know that makes a lot more sense. This change will also apply to Gaara and the other two Kazekage if it comes up I don't know if it will yet.

Ya I know the Naruto and Arashi part is a bit cringe worthy but I couldn't have Naruto just ignore that he had killed for the first time and this was the best I could do.

I am staying pretty close to the official Naruto map and I am making the Land of woods the place here Mountains' Graveyard is. It is the same Land of woods for the Kakashi chronicles anime arc.


	5. Chapter 5 part 2

I don't own Naruto

(Land of Waterfalls)

Naruto Entered the Land of Waterfalls through its eastern border. Naruto knew the approximant location of the Hidden Waterfall because he escorted Shibuki there on a mission back with team seven.

Naruto started heading in the general direction of the waterfall. When he felt he was getting close to the village four shinobi wearing the standard uniform of the waterfall appeared in front of him. The Leader said, "State your business here."

Naruto replied "I am here to see Shibuki. I have a message for him also I have a favor to ask of him."

The ninja responded, "It sounds as if you know Shibuki-sama."

Naruto responded, "Yes, I was on the team from the Leaf that escorted him here a few years ago."

All four of the ninjas were surprised when they recognized him as one of the Leaf ninjas that brought Shibuki back and that helped free the Waterfall from Suien. The leader then said "Ah yes. You have changed since you were last here. We will escort you to the village."

Naruto nodded and said "Thanks."

(Hidden Waterfall)

Once they were near the entrance of the village one of the Ninja said, "Even though you are a friend of the village you will still have to wear a blindfold while we enter the village." Naruto nodded and let them put a blindfold over his eyes.

After a quick trip through the waterfall entrance to the village, he was told he could take it off the blindfold. When he did he saw the village that had not changed much since he had come as a member of team seven. The village was circular in shape with a massive tree in the center. Around the tree was a circular lake that separated it from the majority of the village. Like the hidden leaf, much of the village has covered with trees.

The leader of the group of ninja said "I trust you will not make any trouble and that you remember your way around. I have already sent a message to my commander, so no one should try and mess with you thinking you are here without permission."

Naruto Nodded and said, "Thanks, I will be heading to see if Shibuki is free now." With that, they all went their separate ways.

As Naruto was going to the center island that contained the tree that hung over the whole village. Under that tree was where Shibuki's office was, as well as most of the government offices and buildings of the Waterfall.

Naruto passed through the market district of the waterfall. Naruto looked at some of the shinobi stores and thought. 'This would be the perfect place to get new gear. Most of my survival gear is fine but I really should get some real ninja gear. Also, a bigger backpack would be nice.'

Naruto continued to walk through the town and over the bridge that led to the massive tree at the center of the village. When he got there he walked into the building that served as the administrative hub of the Hidden Waterfall.

When he walked in he was greeted by a receptionist that asked, "How can I help you?"

Naruto responded, "I was wondering if Shibuki was free and I would like to talk to him."

The receptionist said "Ah yes you must be Naruto. We got a message from one of our patrol teams that you were coming. I'll see if Shibuki-sama is free."

In a minute, the receptionist came back and motioned for Naruto to follow. Naruto entered Shibuki's office and sat down in a chair in front of Shibuki's desk. Shibuki then said "So Naruto what is it you wanted to talk about. If there is anything I can do for you let me know."

Naruto said "Thanks, I appreciate it. I wanted to talk to you about two things. The first is I was wondering if you could pass this message along to the Leaf." Naruto pulled out the scroll he got from the Fuma clan and handed it to Shibuki.

"Sure I can do that, but if you don't mind me asking what message would you be sending to the Leaf?" Shibuki asked.

Naruto responded by telling Shibuki about the Fuma clan, the Sound village, and the Land of Rice Patties. When he was finished he added, "I would also like it if you don't tell the leaf that I am involved."

Shibuki nodded and said "Sure I'll just tell them one of my Jonin got it. If that's it what's the second thing you wanted to talk about?"

Naruto asked, "Have you heard of a group called the Akatsuki?"

Shibuki nodded and said "Ya, but not much from my understanding they are a mercenary group with very powerful members."

Naruto nodded and said "Yes that's right but they aren't just mercenaries. They are also hunting Jinchuuriki. Two of their members are Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha." Shibuki's eyes widened at this and thought 'If what he says is true that could put the village in danger if they come here to capture Fuu.'

Shibuki then said "That's troubling news. I suppose you are telling me this because you know we have a Jinchuuriki. Do you know why they are going to do with the tailed beasts?"

Naruto responded, "I don't know the specifics but it has something to do with taking over the world."

Shibuki was shocked at what Naruto told him and said "Well that isn't good. For now, I will have to talk with the council about this. Can you stay here in the village till this is sorted out? There is a possibility that the council will turn on Fuu and kick her out, banish her, or try and give her to the Akatsuki to avoid them attacking our village."

Naruto nodded and said "I can stay here if you need me too."

Shibuki chuckled and said, "Thanks."

After that, Naruto said goodbye and went to the market district to upgrade his gear.

After Naruto left Shibuki quickly wrote a letter to the Leaf with a fabricated story about how he got the Fuma clan letter. He gave both to his receptionist to send to the Leaf.

Then he started to write some messages to the various council members telling them that there would have to be a council meeting the next day.

(Waterfall market district)

Naruto walked into the Market district and started to look around. As he was walking he thought 'I need to get out of this civilian clothing and into some real ninja gear. I think I saw a good shop in their market district that has everything.'

Naruto found the store and started to walk through it and pick out new gear. Naruto picked out a backpack that could hold about twice as much stuff as his current one could and it also had a few extra features that a ninja would find useful. Features like scroll pouches, quick access compartments for medical supplies or other things that need to be accessed quickly, and even a place where he could strap a sword to the pack.

Naruto also stocked up on shuriken, kunai, and other ninja supplies. Naruto also picked out a tanto made out of a chakra conductive metal. A new kunai pouch that was a bit bigger than the one he had and it had space for a small medical kit. He also got a much larger medical kit that would be sealed in a scroll in his backpack.

For clothes Naruto got a black long sleeve shirt, black Cargo pants with pockets for scrolls, Black ninja sandals, Black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on the back, forearm guards that seals could be applied to, mess armor undershirt and shorts, and a gray flak jacket. Naruto got several pairs of his new outfit in case they got damaged. Naruto also got a black travelers cloak and mask, so that is would be harder to spot him while he was traveling.

Naruto brought everything he wanted to the counter and after paying put everything in a scroll and headed to a hotel to rent a room.

Once Naruto got to the hotel room he dumped out all his stuff from his backpack onto the bed, also he dumped all the stuff he bought on the bed as well and started to think about how to organize it all.

After Naruto had organized all of his equipment he decided to go and find a training grown to get familiar with his new equipment.

Naruto started to walk through some of the training fields of the waterfall looking for one that wasn't being used. As he walked through he was greeted by many shinobi that recognized him as the one that helped beat Suien and the rain shinobi he was working with.

Naruto had to go deep into the forest to find a suitable training ground as he wanted a lot of space to create a lot of clones and be secluded enough that he could have some privacy working on a few of his jutsu that he didn't want other people to see. Naruto had decided that he wanted to keep his use of the Hiraishin and the wind style rasengan as secret as possible.

As Naruto was getting close to giving up and just using one of the smaller training fields, and just do some sparring with some shadow clones, he spotted another clearing through the trees. At first glance, it seemed that the clearing was empty, but Naruto noticed a girl about his age sitting on a boulder near the base of a waterfall that was on the edge of the clearing.

Naruto was about to turn around and go back to a small empty clearing he had passed through earlier, but then the appearance of the girl caught his eye. She was wearing an outfit made of a short sleeveless white midriff shirt with fishnet armor underneath, long white armlets, and fishnet shorts with a short white apron skirt over it. Her skin was a light Carmel color which wasn't common in the elemental nations. She had short mint green hair that was held back with an orange hair clip that matched her eyes.

Naruto looked at her eyes and thought that they were beautiful. While Naruto had given up on wearing orange, as it wasn't a suitable color for a ninja, he still liked the color a lot.

After Naruto took in her appearance he thought 'She fits the description that Komei gave me for Fuu and she is kind of cute. She looks lonely just like I used to be.' After Naruto thought that he realized that he actually was lonely the only other person he had really spent time with since he was banished was with Ashina and he wasn't even a real person.

This thought made Naruto sad but he was brought back to reality when he heard "I know someone is there come out." The voice was coming from the mint-haired girl sitting in the clearing. Naruto came out of the trees and into the clearing sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and wearing a foxy grin. Once he was out of the tree line and a bit into the clearing he said "Sorry I was just looking for an empty training ground. I guess I just sat in the trees longer than I meant to."

The mint haired girl glared and him and said, "Well this one isn't empty so you can go now."

Naruto decided he didn't want to leave just yet for two reasons one to see if the girl was Fuu and two just to spite her. He said, "Why should I leave all the other training fields are full plus I can go where ever I want."

The girl huffed and mumbled "Whatever."

Naruto created some clones and started a light spar to get familiar to the feel of his new gear. After Naruto had practiced for a bit he decided to try and talk with the mint-haired girl.

Naruto had noticed that she had been watching him as he worked out, so he decided to start by teasing her a little bit. He said "Like what you see?" in a playful tone.

The mint haired girl tried but couldn't help but blush and said, "No I was just starting off into space." This wasn't a complete lie. At first she was looking at him like any girl her age would if a good looking boy was standing in front of them. But after realizing what she was thinking about she suppressed those thoughts as they had always led her to pain in the past, but couldn't take her eyes off the blond haired boy training in front of her.

"Whatever you say," Naruto said not losing the playful tone. He continued by saying "By the way my name is Naruto Uzumaki what's yours?"

The white clothed girl responded with "Why should I tell you?"

Naruto replied, "What you're going to watch me train and then not even give me your Name?"

The girl was silent for a second thinking about how to respond. After not thinking of any way to get out of her situation she sighed and looked away then she mumbled "Fuu, my name is Fuu."

Naruto thought 'So this is Fuu.' He then said, "You're a kunoichi right, want to spar?"

Fuu gave Naruto a suspicious look and said "No thanks."

Naruto insisted and said "Come on. You can't tell me that you like to just sit out here and stare at a rock all day."

Fuu huffed and said, "What if I do."

Naruto looked skeptical and said, "Then I would say that you're lying."

Fuu was now getting annoyed with Naruto as she could tell that he had some motive but couldn't tell what it was. She glared at Naruto and said, "Why don't you just leave me alone." With a slightly raised voice.

"Sorry, I was just trying to be nice," Naruto replied in a defensive tone.

"Why! Why are you being nice to me? I don't know what you're trying to do but just leave me alone!" Fuu shouted. After that, she jumped up into the trees and ran off.

Naruto followed after Fuu shouting "Wait can we just talk?"

As Fuu ran through the trees she shouted, "No just leave me alone!" However, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and lost her footing and fell to the ground. When she hit the ground she sprained her ankle and couldn't walk.

Quickly Naruto jumped down from the trees near Fuu. He then asked, "Are you OK?"

Fuu's anger and annoyance at Naruto had only been a mask for her fear of what Naruto wanted with her. She had been hurt many times by people who had been nice to her just to be mean to her later. With her ankle now sprained she couldn't go anywhere and the mask started to fall off. Now on the verge of tears and scared as she was at the mercy of Naruto she said "Why? Why are you being nice to me?"

Naruto then said "Because I know what you are. I know that you're a Jinchuuriki." Fuu was now terrified and confused as Naruto had not approached her and his voice sounded dejected instead angry or hateful like she was used to. Naruto then lifted up his shirt and channeled some Chakra revealing a complex sealing matrix. Naruto then said "I am a Jinchuuriki too and I know how people like us are treated. So I was just trying to be nice."

Fuu didn't know how to respond she had never met another Jinchuuriki. She didn't know what to do but without thinking, she said in a timid voice "My ankle is sprained."

Naruto gave a warm smile and walked over to Fuu and knelt down. He made a simple splint and wrapped up Fuu's ankle. While Naruto was working on her ankle she was trying to get her thoughts in order. This was something she had never thought would happen. She had met someone that understood the pain of being a Jinchuuriki and she didn't know how to feel about it. Part of her was happy that she had met someone that understood her, but another was scared as every time she had gotten close to someone she had been hurt.

When Naruto had finished he helped Fuu get to her feet and then said, "It's getting dark how about I walk you home."

Fuu decided that it was worth the risk to see where it when spending time with Naruto. She was about to respond when her stomach rumbled and it was loud enough that Naruto could hear. Fuu's face went a shade of red that could be found on Hinata quite often.

Naruto then said, "Or would you like to go and get something to eat, my treat."

Fuu looked down and said, "No restaurant will let me in."

Naruto continued smiling and said, "Then I'll just go get some takeout for the both of us and we can eat somewhere else." Naruto then created a clone to go and get them some food while they walked to Fuu's house.

Fuu's house wasn't much of a house it was more of a shack, but it had electricity, water, and kept the elements out enough that she was fine. It had two rooms a small bathroom and then everything else was in a larger room.

Naruto's clone got to there soon after the original and Fuu did as it wasn't slowed by Fuu's sprained ankle. As they ate they talked. The conversation was mostly driven by Naruto with Fuu mostly answering his questions.

After they had finished eating it was time for Naruto to go. Before he left Fuu asked, "How long are you going to stay in the Waterfall?" She was hoping that he would stay for a long time as she did enjoy the time they spent together despite the rough start.

Naruto replied "I'll be here for a week but then I'll have to move on."

Fuu sadly replied "Oh."

Naruto seeing that Fuu was a bit sad that he couldn't stay that long said, "If you want we can hang out tomorrow."

Fuu gave a genuine smile something she hadn't done in a long time and said, "I would like that."

(Hokage's office)

A week later Tsunade came into her office she was greeted by two things she was not expecting. Two messages one from the Fuma clan and the other from the Hidden Waterfall.

The message from the waterfall was not very interesting just explaining why they were delivering a message from the Fuma clan. The Fuma clan message, on the other hand, was very interesting. They were asking for help in dealing with Orochimaru and the Hidden Sound Village. 'I should pass this on to ANBU since Jiraiya isn't here.' After thinking for a few minutes about how she should deal with it, she heard a knock from the window.

"Thinking about me?" Jiraiya said in a playful tone while sitting on the windowsill.

"As a matter a fact yes I was." After saying that Tsunade handed the scroll from the Fuma clan to Jiraiya. Who quickly read it looked back at Tsunade and said, "This is an interesting development I will look into, but first there is something I need to do."

"What do you need to do?" Tsunade asked.

"I was remembering that Minato built a tracking seal into Kushina's seal and I was wondering if he did the same to Naruto. There isn't a good chance of it, but it's worth looking into since at this point I am all out of leads. I will have to look though some of his sealing notes and scrolls in his house to know for sure."

Tsunade nodded and said, "Good he has been off the radar for far too long."

With that Jiraiya was off to the Namikaze estate.

(Namikaze estate)

Jiraiya knew how to get past Minato's blood seals. Minato knew this and trusted Jiraiya only to do it in an emergency.

After Jiraiya got in he headed for the Library as that was where he also kept many of his notes.

When Jiraiya got to the library his eyes widened. There wasn't a single scroll, book, or piece of paper in the library. Jiraiya ran up to Minato's old office and found it almost as barren. There were only a few pieces of paper with unimportant things written on them.

Jiraiya looked through the house finding that almost everything that could be valuable to a ninja was gone. The equipment room was as barren as the library, but nothing had been taken from Kushina's jewelry box.

'It must have been Naruto. He must have somehow learned that Minato and Kushina were his parents and came here the night he left. I wonder if he took the Hiraishin scroll.' Jiraiya thought as he looked through the house.

Jiraiya went and opened Minato's secret hiding place for the Hiraishin scroll and found it empty. He realized that there was not much he could do, so he went back to Tsunade's office.

(Hokage's office)

Jiraiya came in through the window. Tsunade noticed him and said "Any luck?"

Jiraiya shook his head and said, "The whole place was cleaned out. There was almost nothing left."

Tsunade spun around in her chair and shouted, "What!"

Jiraiya continued "Almost anything of value to a ninja was gone, but things like Jewelry were still there. Based on this I suspect that Naruto somehow learned of his parents and took everything the night he left. He probably left in the night to avoid any questions."

Tsunade was deep in thought and said, "Do you know if he took the Hiraishin scroll?"

Jiraiya nodded and said, "yes it was gone."

"I'll have to hide this from the council somehow," Tsunade stated.

"Well, I don't think that he did anything wrong, so you shouldn't have to tell them. Since it's his inheritance it was his to take, so he didn't steal anything he only took his own property. And you can take any property that's yours with you when you are banished, so we don't have to make a big deal out of this." Jiraiya stated.

"Yes you are right, but if they ever find out there is going to be a huge mess. If he masters, it and starts using it that could be a big problem. Many will want him dead as they could see him as a threat to the village." Tsunade said

Jiraiya replied "Well I am glad that I am not Hokage because that is a shit storm I don't want to be near. Anyway, I am going to go investigate this Fuma clan thing. Then I am going to go to the Land of Whirlpools it is possible that Naruto went there to go off the grid, as it was the place his mom grew up. Very few people would think to go there and very few people know how to get there."

Tsunade nodded and Jiraiya continued "The Akatsuki are going to start to make their move in about a year. I am going to go to all the villages that have Jinchuuriki and warn them."

Tsunade nodded and said "Good luck."

(Waterfall council room)

The council of the village Hidden in the Waterfall had been having meetings all week. The meetings were to discuss what to do about the Akatsuki. Shibuki was not happy but also unsurprised with where the meetings had gone.

Most of the councilors never liked Fuu or for that matter any of the other Jinchuuriki that came before her. At first, the Waterfall was very happy that they were the only minor village with a Jinchuuriki but quickly they discovered that Jinchuuriki weren't worth much and they needed hard and extensive training from an early age. Also most of the time the Jinchuuriki were more of a hindrance than a help.

All the councilors wanted Fuu out of the village because she was not worth the risk if a large group of S class ninja were coming to take her. The differences lied in how to do it some wanted to hand her over to the Akatsuki. Others thought that would be a bad idea and in the end hurt the Village if the Akatsuki ever ended up using the tailed beast, so they wanted to give her to another village in exchange for Jutsu or other assets. Some thought it best to just banish her and be done with it. The banish side was the biggest as it would solve the problem the fastest.

Shibuki didn't like any of the options and it seemed like the discussions were going nowhere, so he said "It's getting late and we have just been going in circles all week. Let's not make a decision today, and let's end the meeting and think about our options. Tomorrow we will vote on what we will do." Everyone agreed and then got up to leave.

Shibuki went to his office and called for one of his men to get Naruto and bring him to his office. He started to think 'It seems likely that Fuu will be banished. I don't like it, but that is the likely outcome. I'll see if Naruto can take her maybe he could keep her safe or at least find somewhere for her to be safe.'

(Elsewhere in the waterfall)

Naruto and Fuu were sitting in the clearing where they had first met earlier that week. They had just finished sparring and Naruto was resting under a tree. Fuu sat down next to him and said, "Got you this time." During their spar Fuu had beaten Naruto with her use of bugs. Naruto had not come up with a counter to her bugs, but since it took a while for Fuu to get her bugs in place it gave Naruto a quick chance at the beginning of the match to beat her. This meant that Fuu mostly won long matches but Naruto won the quick ones.

Naruto smirked and said, "Whatever I got you the time before."

Fuu pouted and said "Whatever."

Naruto chuckled and thought about everything that he had done with Fuu and all that he had learned about her over the last week.

Naruto learned a lot about Fuu both her personality and her skills as a ninja. While Fuu didn't talk much at first that changed once she started to trust Naruto. After Fuu decided to trust Naruto her real personality came out she liked to talk and could even be considered loud. Fuu's real personality reminded Naruto of himself before his banishment and training in the vault, but it wasn't as extreme as he used to be.

Hanging out with Fuu had brought some of Naruto's old personality that had been pushed aside after he was banished. They had swapped some stories of pranks that they had both pulled. Fuu mostly pulled pranks to get back at stores that had kicked her out or had been extremely cheap with her.

A few days into Naruto's stay a laundromat had 'lost' Fuu's clothes, so Naruto proposed that they teach the owner that messing with Fuu was a bad idea. That Night Naruto and Fuu broke in and added a dye to all the detergent, so any clothes washed with it turned bright pink. They had also discovered that Fuu's clothes were in a trash can in the back.

The next day they could hear the commotion that they had caused all the way out in the clearing they spent most of their time in. Naruto had also taught Fuu a jutsu that would clean her clothes, so she wouldn't need to depend on the laundromat to have clean clothes.

They had sparred against each other several times over that week. During their spars, Naruto learned that she like all Jinchuuriki had a lot of chakra. She mostly used bugs and water jutsu for fighting. She hadn't used her tenets power as she couldn't use it whenever she wanted, but she like him had used before but didn't have any control when using it and couldn't draw on it whenever she wanted.

During the week that they had spent together, they had both been happy and had been having a lot of fun. Naruto was happy and not just because he got to make a fellow Jinchuuriki feel better, as he also made a new friend.

Naruto looked up at the sky and saw that it was going to be dark soon, so he said "It's probably time to head back. Shibuki wanted to see me this evening." Fuu nodded She could tell that Naruto had to leave soon.

They both walked back to Fuu's house and after a hug goodbye, they split up. Fuu entered her house and laid on her bed. She wanted to cry as her first friend was likely going to leave and be gone for a long time.

Naruto was walking to Shibuki's office he was sad that he was likely going to have to leave soon. He couldn't stay in the Waterfall forever as the Akatsuki were coming after him and god knows who else. Naruto was sad as he was going to miss Fuu. He hadn't had as much fun that week since he was banished. Naruto felt that his training at the Vault was interesting and important, but it definitely wasn't fun.

(Shibuki's office)

Naruto entered Shibuki's office and he looked up from some paperwork and said "I'll just get to the point as we don't have much time. The council will likely banish Fuu tomorrow morning. I don't like it but there is not much that can be done about it now."

Naruto had not been expecting for Fuu to be banished, so he hadn't told Fuu about his real reason for being in the Waterfall. Naruto sighed as he realized that there was a lot that had to be done in a short time and said, "If she is going to be banished then it would be best if she either comes with me or goes to another hidden village."

"I don't trust the other villages most of them would kill her and transfer the seven tails to someone that they knew would be loyal to them. I would like it if she could go with you and if the Akatsuki are ever dealt with then we can think about her coming back."

Naruto nodded and said, "Ok it would be best if I leave and meet her outside the village to avoid any unwanted questions."

Shibuki nodded and said "Yes there is an old outpost that is not too far way I'll make sure that she goes there. Also, I would like you to give her these." Shibuki pulled out two scrolls.

Naruto took the scrolls and asked, "What are in these?"

Shibuki answered "One is a letter from me saying sorry I couldn't help as much as I would have liked. The other is her inheritance from her mom which is a note and some other stuff it was supposed to be given to her when she turned 18, but at this point, this is the best I can do. If it were up to the council she wouldn't even get it, but what they don't know won't hurt them."

Naruto nodded and said, "Then I'll be off to the outpost now."

Naruto quickly left and went to the shinobi store that he had gone to earlier that week and quickly bought a second traveling cloak and mask for Fuu. As it would be best for them to travel undetected.

Naruto then went to his hotel room gathered his stuff and quickly left the Waterfall.

(Waterfall council room)

The next day, the council meeting had just started and Shibuki said, "Unless anyone has anything more to say then we should vote on what to do with Fuu."

Nobody said anything so Shibuki started the vote. Like he thought seven of the ten members voted to have Fuu banished. This was enough of a majority to have Fuu Banished.

"If that is all then Fuu is hereby officially banished and she must leave within three hours of being informed. I am going to go to my office and start the process of banishment."

(Shibuki's office)

Shibuki sat down and sighed he didn't like what had happened. He knew how badly Fuu was treated and didn't think it was fair.

Shibuki called out for one of his men to bring Fuu to his office.

About 15 minutes later a nervous Fuu came into the office and sat down. Shibuki said "The council of this village has come to the decision that you are to be banished. This scroll contains your banishment orders."

Shibuki handed the scroll to a shocked Fuu and continued to speak. "You will have to leave the village within three hours. You are dismissed."

Fuu still in shock somehow managed to get her feet under her and leave.

(Fuu's house)

Once Fuu got in she opened the scroll and started to read. There wasn't much it basically told her to get out and never come back. When she got to the end there was something she didn't expect. _A friend is waiting for you at the outpost on the hill 3 miles south of the village_. It was written at the end of the scroll with a different lettering then the rest of the scroll. Most of the writing in the scroll was done with very proper calligraphy, but the message at the end were written quickly and without care for how it looked.

Fuu quickly packed her things there wasn't much beyond some survival gear, clothes, and a large red cylinder that she kept bugs in. The cylinder also had a compartment for scrolls which is where she put all her stuff.

The type of bug that she kept was a type of beetle that ate chakra and was similar to the Aburame clan's Kikaichu, but a bit more powerful. Only the Jinchuuriki of the seven tails is able to control them. They were also beefed up a bit from living off the seven tails chakra for many generations.

(Outside the village)

Fuu knew about the outpost that Shibuki was talking about. She had been there before as a stop off point for missions in the past as well was a place she could escape from the village when she was younger.

Naruto was waiting outside the outpost for Fuu.

When Fuu saw Naruto she ran up to him. When she got to him she hugged Naruto tightly and started to cry. Naruto hugged her back and said "What's wrong?" worried that something had happened to her.

Fuu continued to cry and managed to say "Thank you. It's just so crazy I thought I would never see you again and then I got Banished. Then I see you again and I don't know what to do."

Naruto smiled and said "No problem I couldn't just let you get kicked out and have nowhere to go. For now, how about you come with me." Fuu clung to Naruto tighter and continued sobbing into Naruto's chest. Naruto continued to hug her trying to help her though all the emotions he was going through.

After a while, she calmed down. Fuu pulled away and whipped the tires from her eyes. She nodded said "sorry." Noticing the wet spot on Naruto's shirt where her tires had landed.

Naruto smiled and said, "Don't worry I know it can be a big shock to be banished."

Fuu then asked, "Where are we going to go?" Her voice was still a bit strained after crying.

Naruto answered "I have a friend I want to go and see. He is in the Hidden Sand Village. It's going to be a long journey as we have to take the long way around through the land of earth. The first place is going to be a village in the Land of Grass. We should be able to get there before nightfall if we move at a good pace."

Fuu got out of the hug not because she wanted to but she knew they had to get moving. "We should start moving," Fuu said.

Naruto nodded and pulled out a black travelers cloak and said, "You should wear this." Fuu grabbed it and put it on.

While tree hopping Fuu asked, "Is there anything special about this village?"

Naruto said "No but it's the best place to stock up for the trip. We have to take the long way around as I can't go through the Land of fire and we shouldn't go through the Land of rain. So we have to take the long way around through the land of earth and the land of Mountains."

Fuu Nodded and asked, "Why should we avoid the rain it would take a while to get through the border but it still is faster than going through the mountains."

"The leader of the Akatsuki operates out of the rain," Naruto replied.

Fuu nodded as she understood, in her banishment orders it had said why she was being banished. Fuu asked, "Who is this Friend we are meeting."

Naruto replied, "His name is Gaara and he is the Jinchuuriki of the one tails."

End of chapter

It took a lot of rewriting to get the first interaction with Fuu and Naruto the way I wanted, sp I hope it came out good.

When it comes up Fuu is the seven tails Jinchuuriki and Fu is the ROOT agent.

Just a note about how this story will be progressing. This is a story about Naruto getting banished but that isn't the only thing that's happening. I will be giving updates and have story lines that involve other people. But the focus and the majority of what I write will be on Naruto.


	6. Chapter 6 part 2

I don't own Naruto

(Unknown location)

In a dark cave holograms of figures started to appear. Once nine had appeared the leader said "I want a report on the locations of all the tailed beasts especially the four that have not been found. Deidara is there an update on the one tails?"

Deidara responded "Yes, he has been made Kazekage which means that he will be in the village more, but this shouldn't be an issue as my man Sasori has a spy in the village that is in charge of the village's defenses. Slipping past them should be easy."

The leader nodded "Sasori is there an update on the two tails."

Sasori shook his head and said, "No there is no update and we are still tracking her."

The leader nodded again "Has anyone found out anything about the three tails."

The shark man spoke up "While investigating a rumor on the nine tails Samehada got a sent on it and we tracked it to an isolated lake in the Land of Hot Water."

The leader nodded happily that one of the unfound beasts was located. "Kisame do you have any updates on the four tails?"

"We found him in the southern part of the Land of Earth but he was able to get away before we could do anything. From what we heard, he likes the mountainous and isolated parts of the south and east of the land of earth." Kisame responded.

The leader only said "Kakuzu any updates on the five tails?"

"No we have no updates and to save time I'll update everyone on the next few targets. The six tails is currently in the land of woods with a once powerful clan working as an instructor to the heir to the clan. We currently have him being tailed. The seven tails has been banished from the hidden waterfall. Apparently the nine tails came and informed the village head of us and the village banished her. My source believes that she is currently with the nine tails, but they were able to leave before a tail could be placed on them."

The leader was not happy about this while the six tails had been found the seven was now off the radar and the nine tails as well. If they were together that could cause issues for the team that went after them. "Itachi do you have an update on the eight tails?"

Itachi simply said "No."

"Has anyone heard anything about Komei?" The leader asked.

Kisame then said, "I heard a few rumors that he passed through the Land of Hot water and then into the Land of Lighting, but no actionable information."

The leader angry that they had taken two steps forward and one step back in finding the tailed beasts said "You are all dismissed we cannot have any more mistakes."

(Hidden Rain)

The leader of the Akatsuki opened his eyes and looked over the city that he ruled. Behind him, a swirl appeared in the air. Out of that swirl appeared a man and once his full body had appeared he said "We are having more problems than we should be having with this. Trusting Komei was not a good idea."

"He was like many of the others we recruited an S-Rank Ninja that abandoned their Village. His skills in information collecting are on para with Jiraiya of the Sannin and his kekkei genkai makes him a formidable opponent. Even the Sharingan can't track his attacks." The body with spiky orange hair said.

"That may be true, but now he is running around with our secrets. He is at least keeping his head down, but I doubt he is going to do that forever. If he is left alive for too long, he could stop our plan for peace." The man said.

The body with orange spiky hair look back at the man who had appeared out of nowhere. The man was wearing a basic black jumpsuit that was lightly armored. He was wearing an orange swirl mask with one eye hole.

The body then said, "What should we do about him?"

"It may come to the point where you need to intervene and fight him. For now, the zombie brothers have located their targets, so send them to hunt him down. Kakuzu is one of the few in the Akatsuki with the resources and knowledge to find him and Hidan won't mind hunting a powerful opponent." The orange masked man said.

"I'll tell them their new assignment." The body said looking back over the rain. The masked man turned back into a swirl and disappeared.

(Land of rice patties)

Jiraiya had just met with the Fuma clan and was currently writing a message to Tsunade. The message was telling her about the situation and that she should send help.

However, one thing was still bothering him and that was that he had overheard a few girls talking about a boy they had seen recently. He didn't make out everything but he knew that they thought the boy was cute, had spiky blond hair and that he had saved one of the girls in the group. But the detail that really had him thinking was that he heard one say Menma Uzumaki.

'It must have been Naruto who came here and he must have headed to the waterfall to forward the Fuma clans letter to the Leaf. He must have gone to the Whirlpool because if he thought that Menma was a good alias he must have been far off the grid and that's why I haven't been able to find him. Well at least he got a bit better it was only dumb luck I found out about him and he used a third party to move the message and keep his hands clean of anything that happened. So should I investigate the waterfall or the Whirlpool?' Jiraiya thought on it for a minute. 'I should check out the waterfall first if I am quick he still might be there. If I don't get any leads I can always go to the Whirlpool.'

He finished the message and summoned a messenger toad. The toad took it and was off to give it to Tsunade. Then the toad sage got up and headed in the direction of the waterfall. 'I should be able to get there by noon tomorrow.' Jiraiya said to himself.

(Land of earth)

Two days after leaving the Waterfall Naruto and Fuu made it into the Land of Earth. They had stopped at the first town they had come across and bought some maps of the Land of Earth.

They had just found a clearing Naruto pulled his hood down and his mask off. He didn't particularly like to wear them but people who looked like him, more specifically his dad, commonly would find more trouble in the Land of earth. They sat down and pulled out the maps they had gotten earlier that day. They started to plan out how they were going to cross the Land of earth.

They chose a path that was along the southern border of the country and then go through the center of the Land of Mountains. This would put them far away from civilization so there was less chance of Naruto getting recognized. Hopefully, they would not run into any ninja on that route to avoid any commotion.

After they had finished planning Fuu fell back into the grass and let out an exacerbated sigh. Naruto looked down at her and playfully said, "What, are you tired already?"

Fuu pouted and looked away and said, "No, it's just going to be a long and annoying journey and just because you can't show your face in this country."

"Well, think about it this way. You are going to be the only girl in the Land of Earth to see my beautiful face." Naruto said jokingly while flashing a foxy grin.

Fuu looked away to hide her blush and said "Whatever."

(Hidden Waterfall Village)

Jiraiya was getting close to the hidden waterfall when four Ninja from the village appeared. He had not been trying to hide in fact he wanted to be found. Since he was going to be on a diplomatic mission he felt that sneaking around was not for the best.

The leader said, "State your business for being here."

Jiraiya replied "I am here on a diplomatic mission from the Leaf. I am here to see Lord Shibuki."

The leader said, "Of course Lord Jiraiya we will lead you to the village now."

They quickly got to the village once they enter the four waterfall ninja went back to their patrol and left Jiraiya to get to Shibuki himself.

Once Jiraiya was on his own he summoned a dozen toads and said "I need you guys to look around the village and try and find Naruto or any information on where he is. I'll summon you again tonight. If you find him trail him and stay out of sight." The toads nodded and went off on their assignment.

Jiraiya then went to the center island. He didn't have to wait long for Shibuki to call him into his office.

"So what does the leaf want?" Shibuki said in a flat tone.

Jiraiya internally sighed he knew that the waterfall was one of the villages that were not happy with what happened to Naruto. The waterfall didn't do anything as couldn't afford to cause an international incident over Naruto's banishment but they had been a bit less cooperative in the past year.

"I came here to talk to you about the Akatsuki," Jiraiya said.

Shibuki sighed replied "We have already heard about the Akatsuki. The council came to the decision to have our Jinchuuriki banished. She left several days ago. I don't know where she went."

Jiraiya's eyes widened and he shouted "You as good has handed her over to the Akatsuki. Do you have any idea what kind of problems that could cause?"

Shibuki glared and Jiraiya "The matter was out of my hands. Anyway, I sent her to a friend that can keep her safe. As to who I can't tell you. I promised him I would tell no one."

Jiraiya sighed "Well if she is being looked after then that's about as much as I can ask for. Unless there is anything else I need to send a report back to the Hokage."

Shibuki shook his head and said, "That is all."

Jiraiya left his office and went and got a hotel room. Later that night Jiraiya summoned his toads he had sent scouting earlier. Once they appeared he said, "Did you guys find anything."

One said, "Naruto was definitely here but he left a few days ago."

Another said "I heard a group of girls talking. They didn't seem too happy because Naruto was spending a lot of time with a different girl named Fuu. The group didn't seem to like Fuu."

None of the others had seen or heard anything different.

'Fuu is this villages Jinchuuriki, so Naruto must be this friend that Shibuki was talking about. He and Fuu must be traveling together. They are the same age.' Jiraiya started to giggle as perverted thoughts started to enter his mind.

After he got over those thoughts he went back to thinking about finding Naruto. 'Well, either way, I don't know where they are going after leaving here. They must be stuck on one side of the continent. They could go west to the land of wind as Gaara would protect them now that he is Kazekage. He could have also gone east back to the Whirlpool.'

The toads not getting any orders decided to leave as Jiraiya continued to think. 'Well there are two options east or west since I still have to meet with the other villages that have Jinchuuriki I'll go east to the cloud and mist to warn them I'll check the Whirlpool on the way to the Mist. That would be the most off the radar place. After the Mist, I'll go to the cloud.' Jiraiya continued to plan out his trip to find Naruto and warn the rest of the villages about the Akatsuki. After he completed his plan he sent a message to Tsunade about what he was going to do and what he had found.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade was doing some paperwork when a toad hopped in through the window. Tsunade recognized it as one of Jiraiya's messenger toads. It held out a scroll and Tsunade took it. She then reached into her desk and pulled out a piece of candy and gave it to the toad. Who said "Thanks" before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

'Jiraiya already sent a message two days ago about the Fuma clan. I don't think he could have got to the whirlpool by now. I wonder what this is about.' With that thought Tsunade opened the scroll and started to read.

 _While investigating the Fuma clan I heard a rumor of a boy with spiky blond hair possibly named Menma Uzumaki saving one of their members. Based on that I think this Menma kid is Naruto. Ya, I would have face palmed if I wasn't in the middle of their compound. If I find him, I am going to have to explain that changing his name from one ramen topping to another isn't a good alias. So I went to the waterfall to see if I could find him as it seems he used them as a middle man to send the letter. He had been in the waterfall, but he had already left by the time I got there._

Tsunade smiled at this it meant that Naruto was definitely not trying to hurt the leaf. In fact, he was helping it by providing information on one of the leaf's biggest enemies. She believed that Naruto would not hurt the leaf, but this got rid of all doubts she had. She continued to read.

 _While I was in the Waterfall I told Shibuki about the Akatsuki. He then informed me that there Jinchuuriki, Fuu, had been banished out of fear the Akatsuki would attack the village. Although he told me that she was not by herself. All he would tell me is that she left with a 'Friend'. I also heard some rumors that Naruto and Fuu spent some time together and the Naruto left at the same time as Fuu. Based on all of this I believe that our little brat got a Jinchuuriki girlfriend and is now somewhere in the elemental Nations. It almost gives me ideas for my next book._

Tsunade just looked at the last part blankly for a few minutes. 'Naruto you really know how to get in the middle of stuff.' With that thought Tsunade continued to read.

 _If Naruto wants to disappear again I feel that he will go back to the whirlpool, so I am going to go there and check it out. After that, I am going to the Mist and cloud to warn them about the Akatsuki. If I don't find Naruto, I'll come back to the leaf. If I am right and Fuu is with him then I will take her along with me as well, and we can see what we can do for her._

Tsunade thought 'I don't know how much we can do for Fuu, but she needs to be kept out of the Akatsuki's hands.' She then smiled as this was the first time that she had any news on Naruto since he left.

(Land of whirlpools)

Jiraiya had just stepped onto the coast of the Land of Whirlpools it had been about seven days since Naruto left the waterfall. 'Well, I don't see much but not like I expected to. Even if Naruto could detect me here it would be awhile before he could react to me being here. I would guess that he would stay in the capital at the center it would have the most space and shelter out of everywhere on this island. But I'll summon some scout toads to look around the island.' That that he ran through some hand signs and summon a dozen small toads.

"I want you guys to look around this island and see if there is any human activity if you find Naruto message me at once." The toads nodded and went looking.

Jiraiya started to walk to the capital of the island. Once got there he started to look around. It was clear that someone had been doing heavy training with fresh burn marks and craters. Many of the craters looked like they were made by rasengan training. Jiraiya also found that a lot of trees seemed to have the leafs stripped off them but had started to grow back.

'Well based on the rasengan craters it seems that Naruto was here, but the newest of these is at least a few weeks old so he either hasn't been here or hasn't been training here for a little bit. Based on the nearly leafless trees he must have been doing the leaf cutting exercise which would mean he has a wind affinity.' Jiraiya thought.

'I'll stay here for a few days just in case he is hiding or not here at the moment. If he is hiding eventually he will come out, but if he is just not here then I'll just have to wait for him to come back or move on.

Jiraiya then went and explored the Uzumaki clan compound. 'Good thing some idiot left that window open if they hadn't it would have been impossible to get into the main hall.'

Jiraiya looked around the main hall of the Uzumaki clan. Jiraiya noticed that there was a clear pathway that looked like it was used a lot but didn't look like anyone had used it in a week or so. Jiraiya followed the trail and found out that it led to the front entrance of a room with a very complicated seal that Jiraiya could not figure out. It had a blood activation part at the center and the rest seemed to be a storage and projection seal, but he could not understand more than 90% of the seal. 'I bet if I had a year and a nice library on sealing I could figure this out. I wonder what would happen if I tried to activate the seal. I have a little Uzumaki blood in me from my great grandfather.'

Jiraiya bit his thumb and activated the seal. It glowed blue for a second and then a voice could be heard "You are not an Uzumaki you may not enter the Vault please leave."

Jiraiya looked around for a bit but saw no one 'I wonder if that is part of the projection seal I saw earlier. And it called this place the Vault. I remember how Kushina went back here when she was a chunin for two years and learned sealing she said she learned it in a place called the vault but couldn't say more as it was an Uzumaki clan secret.' Jiraiya thought.

'Naruto must have come here and learned sealing. He must have also been training in other parts of the shinobi arts based on the mess he left. I wonder how far he has progressed it's only been a year and a half but with his reserves and determination, he could pull off a lot. Either way, I'll set up camp and stay for three days if I see nothing by then he likely didn't come back here after leaving the waterfall. If not here, then probably he went to the sand. I should leave something here in case Naruto returns so that he will know that I am looking for him. I'll leave a note near the Vault if he comes back he will definitely go there so he will see it.'

Jiraiya spent the next three days in the Whirlpool to see if Naruto would show up once they were over and there was no sign of him he left and started his journey to the Mist.

Before Jiraiya left he sat down a pulled out a piece of paper and started to write.

 _Naruto_

 _I am leaving this here so that if you ever find it you will know that I am looking for you. I know that you know who your parents were and you likely know that I am your godfather. I know I wasn't there for you when you were young but please let me be here for you now._

 _Both I and Tsunade know that you have taken you father's library and that's fine. It's probably good that you did if the council found out they would have made the biggest shit storm ever, probably bigger then when your mom and Tsunade caught me peeping at a hot spring. But it's not like they could stop you as it was your inheritance and you had every right to take it._

 _After the Akatsuki came looking for you in the village I decided that I was going to take you on a training trip being your godfather I always wanted to take you on one. Once you were banished I was still planning on taking you on the trip I was going to meet you a couple miles from the village, but I guess that you left a bit early and I missed you._

 _I understand if you don't want to see me again since I did leave you out to hang for the first 12 years of your life and I don't have a good excuse for it so I am not even going to try and justify it. It was wrong of me to not even check up on you. Either way, if you are willing to forgive me we can still do that training trip, but if you don't then I would still just like to see you and make sure you are safe. I would like to do my job as your godfather at least a little bit, so your mom doesn't give me eternal suffering in the next life. I also want to keep you safe from the Akatsuki I failed you a lot and I don't want to fail you more._

 _The seal on this page will let you contact me if you activate it I will know that you want to see me and I will be able to find you._

 _Jiraiya_

 _PS Tsunade misses you too and wants to see you again._

After Jiraiya finished writing the letter he went back into the Uzumaki compound and stuck it on to the door that led to the Vault.

(Land of Earth)

It had been about a week since Naruto and Fuu had left the waterfall. They had made good progress but it was slow because of the terrain. They hadn't seen any sign any other person, but they expected that based on the route they were taking.

"This seems like a good place to set up camp for the night," Naruto said. Fuu simply nodded she was too tired to say anything, while she was an experienced shinobi she had never traveled over rough terrain for a week straight. Naruto was doing better but not by much he was also exhausted. On the trip, he learned there was a difference between training hard all the time and traveling hard constantly.

After they had set down their gear and started to set up camp both tensed and turned quickly when they heard "Hay you like to share a campfire with another traveler?" The voice came from a short older looking man with red hair tied back in a ponytail that also came down on his face to form a goatee. He wore a purple shirt and matching pants with brown armor on his chest and sides. He wore a crown shaped head peace with the Hidden Stone symbol in the middle over his forehead.

He then started to walk forward and said, "By the way my name is Roshi." Naruto looked at him for a minute and studying him to see if he meant them any harm. Once satisfied that he was not an immediate threat he replied "Sure." Naruto pulled his mask down to reveal his face but left his hood up to hide his hair.

Fuu was still tense about letting a stranger into their camp but didn't say anything. 'I'll have to keep an eye on him. He definitely wants something besides to sharing a camp spot for the night, anyone in this area is here to make sure that they are not found.'

All three pulled out storage scrolls that held various things for setting up a camp. Naruto quickly went and gathered enough firewood for a fire. He set up a fire and pulled out a fire starter when Roshi said, "Don't worry I got it." Roshi then bent over and placed his hand over the firewood and a second later it was ablaze.

'He must have used fire chakra to start the fire.' Naruto thought to himself.

Roshi then pulled out a large pot and said, "If you would like I could cook us all a stew for dinner."

Fuu was very apprehensive about letting a complete stranger cook for them, but Naruto was less hesitant and said, "Thanks that would be nice."

While Roshi went to go filled the pot in a nearby stream Fuu leaned over to Naruto and said "Are you sure we can trust him. He is a complete stranger."

Naruto replied "He is a complete stranger, but there seems to be something familiar about him and I can't sense any killing intent off him so I don't think he is here to hurt us. I can tell he wants something from us, but I don't know what it is. Let's just make camp with him and figure out what it is." Fuu was not happy about it, but if Naruto was willing to risk trusting him then she would go along for now.

Roshi returned and pulled out the need ingredients and started to make the stew. Soon it was done and Roshi served both Naruto and Fuu a bowl. Once everyone was finished eating. Roshi said, "So what are two Jinchuuriki doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Both Naruto and Fuu tensed and were about to run as far and as fast as they could.

However, Roshi spoke before they could move and said, "Don't worry you are in good company." After saying that he rolled up his sleeve to reveal a complex seal on his upper arm. Naruto being versed in seals realized it was the type of seal that would hold a tailed beast in a person.

Fuu was still tense but didn't move. Naruto relaxed a little, but he kept his guard up. He said, "So you are also a Jinchuuriki?"

"Yes I am the Jinchuuriki of the four tails but he likes to go by his full name Son Goku. From what he tells me you are the Jinchuuriki of the nine and your girlfriend is the Jinchuuriki of the seven." Roshi responded.

Both Naruto and Fuu blushed looking away at Roshi saying that they were a couple and because they looked away they didn't notice the other mirroring their actions. Roshi smiled to himself at how they acted when he brought up them being a couple, but neither openly denied it.

Naruto regained his composure first and said, "Wait so your tailed beast told you about us?"

"Yes tailed beasts have a way of detecting each other over long distances and when close they can telepathically communicate. Me and Son have been together for over 50 years while I would not say we are friends he will tell me things from time to time and answer most of my questions. Also when he senses that there is a Jinchuuriki near he tells me." Roshi responded.

"But anyway, you didn't answer my question of what you to are doing here?" Roshi asked a second time.

Naruto responded "We are using a roundabout way to the Land of Wind. Both of us were banished from our village, and the leader of the Akatsuki operates out of the rain."

"Akatsuki who are they?" Roshi asked.

At this point, both Naruto and Fuu had relaxed realizing there was no immediate danger. "The Akatsuki are a group of nine S-rank missing ninja that are trying to collect all of the tailed beasts. I don't know why but there is no way it can be good."

Roshi thought for a minute and said, "I'll have to go tell Onoki about this if they are after Jinchuuriki then Han will be in danger and I don't want to see him get hurt."

"Han is the other Jinchuuriki of the Stone?" Naruto asked.

Roshi Nodded and said "I'll have to go and find him. Maybe I can talk Onoki into helping."

"That would be good. I don't want the Akatsuki to get any of the Jinchuuriki." Naruto replied.

The three continued to talk until they went to bed. The next day all three of them got up early as they all had long journeys.

(Land of Mountains)

Naruto and Fuu were looking for a place to set up camp. As they were running Naruto looked up at the sky and noticed that there were clouds gathering. 'This isn't good this area is prone to flooding when a heavy rain storm comes.' Naruto thought.

Naruto looked to Fuu who was also looking up at the sky and he said, "It looks like it's going to start raining soon. We need to find a cave or at least some high ground so we can stay dry." Fuu nodded and they quickened their pace and started to look for somewhere they could stay.

As they were running Naruto felt a drop of water fall onto his face and he looked up. 'Shit it's starting sooner than I thought it would. We need to get to some cover fast.'

Naruto looked to Fuu who had also noticed that it was starting to rain. Both knew that they had to find shelter quickly, so they quickened there pace and were getting desperate to find anything that they could use as cover.

Within ten minutes of the rain starting they were already both completely soaked. Naruto finally spotted a cave that they could take shelter in. The only problem with it was that they would have to cross a few streams that were moving quickly and growing in size.

They both realized that waiting would only make things worse so they started to cross the streams by using chakra enhanced jumping over the streams. The waters were too unstable and fast for them to try and water walk across.

On the last jump, Naruto noticed that the ground was a more slippery than the other places where he had jumped. As he was landing on the far side of the stream he looked back to make sure Fuu was coming across. A look of horror came across Naruto's face when he saw Fuu. Her foot had slipped and she launched only half way across the river. She had also hit the water head first disorienting her.

Naruto started to run along the stream as fast as he could to not get to far from Fuu. Once he was close he went through some hand signs. 'I hope this works.' Naruto said to himself and then he said "Water style: water dragon Jutsu."

A small water dragon came out of the water and hit Fuu and pushed her onto the bank of the stream. Naruto quickly ran over to her and checked her for any injuries. There were a few cuts and scrapes but none that deep. They would be healed in an hour or less.

The most worrying thing to Naruto was that she was unconscious, but there was no blood coming from her head. Naruto picked her up bridal style and ran over to the cave. Thankfully it was dry and sloped up a bit so water wouldn't run into it.

Naruto laid Fuu on the cave floor and took off Fuu's traveling cloak and jacket as they were completely soaked. He hesitated when it came to her white two-piece that she normally wore they were wet but Naruto was a bit too embarrassed to take them off. He unsealed a towel from a scroll in his backpack and dried Fuu off.

Once she was dry Naruto pull out a blank sealing tag, ink, and a brush. He made a seal and then activated it. It was a heat seal so it started to radiate a lot of heat and warm up the cave. Heat seals could be used as a replacement for a fire when it was too wet for a normal fire or there was no fire wood.

While the seal did warm up the cave it was still quite cold being open to the outside. Naruto looked at and saw that Fuu was shivering lightly. He then leaned over and touched her skin to see if she felt cold. When his fingers reached her skin he felt that it was icy cold Naruto freaked out for a second before he reminded himself that she had only been pulled out of water five minutes ago. 'Calm down Naruto you can't expect her to be warm now but you still need to warm her up.' Naruto commanded himself.

Naruto started to look through the storage compartment on Fuu's bug cylinder to get her sleeping bag out. Naruto cursed under his breath when he saw that the compartment had opened and all of her storage scrolls had fallen out. 'Well, now what? I need to warm up Fuu. The heat seal won't last all night and it will be too cold to sleep without a sleeping bag.'

Naruto sighed as he saw his only option and it was going to be awkward when they woke up. Naruto pulled out his sleeping bag and put Fuu in it. Naruto then dried himself off and got on a dry set of clothes. Naruto then pulled Fuu and his sleeping bag over to the wall of the cave. He then climbed into the sleeping bag with Fuu so that he was leaning up against the wall of the cave and Fuu was leaning into his chest. He also wrapped his arms around her to keep them close. It was a bit tight but it was better than being cold and wet.

Once they were settled Naruto looked down at Fuu and saw that she was nuzzling into his chest. Naruto smiled as he thought Fuu looked cute. After all of the activity of the day and not getting much sleep going through the rough mountain terrain he fell asleep.

(The next morning)

Fuu slowly woke up she didn't remember what happened her head hurt and whatever she was laying on was very comfortable. She didn't know what she was laying on but it was warm and just the right combination of soft and firm. After a little bit her head started to clear and she realized that it was making a low and rhythmic thumping sound and it was also slowly rising up and down.

Fuu then remembered what was happening earlier. First, that it was raining and that she and Naruto were crossing streams to get to a cave. Then that she had slipped and fallen into the stream.

Once she realized she fell into the stream she opened her eyes and tried to get up, but something was holding her down. She saw that she was in the same sleeping bag as Naruto and that his arms were wrapped around her.

Naruto woke up when he felt Fuu suddenly move. Thinking that something was wrong he said, "What's wrong?"

Fuu then started to blush and stuttered out "What… Sleeping bag, you? … River?"

Naruto then unzipped the sleeping bag and got out and sat next to Fuu. Fuu was a bit disappointed because as the embarrassment had gone down she realized that laying on Naruto was really comfortable, but she didn't let it show.

Fuu was going to get out of the sleeping bag but Naruto said "No you should stay and rest up you fell into the river. When you fell all of you scrolls fell into the river and washed away."

Fuu looked down and said "Sorry."

Naruto pulled her into a hug and said "Don't worry about it. The rain stopped, so we can leave if you are feeling good. There's a town not too far off our path and we can go there and get you some new gear."

Fuu nodded into Naruto's chest. They both got out of the hug and Fuu said "I am feeling Ok, so let's leave." She just wanted to get moving to get the thoughts of her laying on Naruto out of her head.

Naruto nodded and they started to pack up and get moving.

After leaving the cave they went to a small town and got Fuu enough gear to get to the Sand, where she could get better gear. Once they were done they left heading for the Sand.

End chapter

(N/A)

Well I hope that last bit came out well because I have no idea if it did. Also I will have more of their own individual thoughts on what they did just next chapter.

Some people (one person) have suggest I use the Rōmaji versions of name of places which is very common in fanfiction. I tried and I just couldn't. My brain refused to work with me on this one so I decided to just stay with English. It's probably just a minor complaint any way.

Also I have stopped using honorifics. I know I only used them like five times total, but it just wasn't working so I am no longer using them.


	7. Chapter 7 part 2

(Land of Wind)

Naruto and Fuu continued their trek through the vast desert of the Land of Wind.

As their journey continued Naruto began to worry more and more about Fuu. After having been banished she had gotten a lot quieter. This was concerning to Naruto but not overly so as he did something similar when he was banished. He believed that she just needed time to sort through her feelings and would start feeling better after that. However, she was even quieter after the night they shared a sleeping bag. Fuu hadn't said more the ten words to him since then.

'She is probably mad at me for sleeping with her and thinks that I am a pervert now.' Naruto sadly thought to himself.

Naruto was also trying to come to grips with how he felt about that night. He had tried to just forget that night, but he just kept coming back it.

At first, he tried to tell himself that what he did was purely practical and it was simple just being near each other to not be cold, but Naruto felt wrong thinking that. Every time he looked at Fuu, he got a warm feeling where she had been pressed into him in the sleeping bag. He eventually stopped trying deny that he only thought of her as a friend. He knew that there was something about her, but he didn't know what. It was different than how he felt about Sakura, so it couldn't possibly be love could it?

Unknown to Naruto Fuu had been thinking over and over again about how she felt about him and wondered what he thought of her. She knew that she could trust him to keep her safe and not turn on her, but she didn't know if she could let herself get close to him as people had always seemed to turn on her in the past. The constant battle going on in her head was driving her insane.

(Near the Sand Village)

The silence was finally broken when Naruto spotted the walls of the Village Hidden in the Sand. "We are almost there. If you look closely you can see the gates right over there." Said Naruto as he pointed to the location of the only public entrance into the Sand Village.

They walked up to the gates of the village where a bored looking gate guard looked at them and said, "State your purpose for entering the village."

"We are looking for a place to get some supplies and rest. We were also probably going to try and see Gaara if he is in town right now." Naruto said. The gate guard just looked at them and drowned "Fill out this form. The hotels are located in the outskirts of the shopping district near Kazekage tower. Don't break our of our laws or you will be arrested. Have a nice day."

Both Naruto and Fuu quickly filled out the form and gave it back to the gate guard and who then waved them through.

As they started to walk through town Fuu spoke, "So how are we going to find this Gaara friend of yours?"

"If we just hang around for long enough we will figure something out. He has a brother and a sister and if we find them then they can take us to him. For now, let's go find a Hotel I want to get out of this heat." Naruto replied and Fuu nodded in agreement.

Arriving at the the hotel they grabbed two seperate rooms to stay in. Dropping off their gear they headed out towards the Kazekage's tower.

(Sand)

Temari was walking through the streets of the Hidden Sand. She had had a long few weeks, with Gaara becoming Kazekage there was a lot of things to do. With having to have to inform all of the minor villages and Kankuro purging all of the people that would backstab Gaara.

While Kankuro had stayed and dealt with the leadership Temari got stuck with spreading the message to the other villages. Temari sighed as she rolled her shoulders this was her first day off in a while and she was planning on spending the day getting pampered at a spa and just relaxing.

Temari was yanked from her thoughts of a present afternoon when she heard someone call out her name.

She recognized the voice but couldn't quite remember whose it was. Turning toward the voice she saw a boy with spiky blond hair and three whisker marks on his face. Next to him there was a girl with short mint green hair and orange eyes. Both were wearing long dark beige travels cloaks.

It took her a second to recognize Naruto because he had changed a bit, but with that hair, whisker marks, and goofy smile it couldn't be anyone else. Once it registered in her brain she called out "Naruto?! What are you doing here and where have you been?"

Naruto responded "Well I came to see Gaara and talk about some things. Oh, by the way, this is Fuu."

Temari sighed because she knew that her day would be a lot longer now and said "Here I'll show you to him. If I remember he and Kankuro should be finishing up a meeting right about now."

Naruto nodded and followed Temari as he thought 'Gaara has meetings now?'

(Kazekage tower)

Naruto, Temari, and Fuu were walking through Kazekage tower. Coming to a door, Temari knocked on it and they heard Gaara say "Come in".

They entered and Naruto's jaw hit the floor when he walked in and saw Gaara wearing the Kazekage's clothes. He then asked in an astonished voice, "Wait you're the Kazekage now?"

In a flat tone, Gaara said, "Well since you can't be a kage now I had to pick up the slack."

Naruto's face then turned from shocked to being slightly annoyed, "Since when did you get a sense of humor."

Gaara replied "A bit after the chunin exams. By the way, who is this you brought with you?"

Naruto then got out of his mock annoyance and said "Oh this is Fuu. She is the Jinchuuriki of the seven tails. She was banished from the Waterfall, so we have been traveling together."

Fuu was nervous and tensed a bit when Naruto said she was a Jinchuuriki. She hadn't expected Naruto to tell them about her tenant. However, her fears that everyone would hate her because of it were unfounded as she got warm and inviting smiles from Kankuro and Temari. Gaara only gave a small smile, but it was clear that he understood her.

Gaara then said "It's nice to meet you Fuu. I want you to know that you are always welcome here in the Sand Village."

Fuu replied, "thanks."

Gaara then said "Is there anything else important you want to talk about?"

Naruto's face when serious and he said, "Ya have you heard of a group called the Akatsuki?"

Gaara responded, "I believe I have heard of them, but I don't remember anything specific."

"They are a group of S-Rank Missing Ninja. There organization's goal is to capture all of the tailed beasts." Naruto stated.

Kankuro and Temari got shocked looks on their faces while Gaara sat up in his chair. "So they are coming after us?"

"Ya, we can't let them do that," Naruto said.

Gaara nodded and said "Yes, I will talk to my village's council about this. We can't allow them to succeed. The hidden villages have done enough damage with the tailed beasts we don't need a bunch of rogue ninja trying to control them." Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Gaara then continued "I would like to stay and chat Naruto, but I have a council meeting soon. How about we catch up and have dinner tonight?"

Naruto said, "Ya that sounds good."

Gaara then said, "I will be busy for the rest of the day, so what are you going to do?"

Naruto answered, "Well I was wondering if I could talk to Kankuro about a blueprint I found."

Kankuro shrugged his shoulders and said "Sure I'll take a look. We can do it in my workshop."

Everyone then looked to Fuu who said "I don't really know. I hadn't thought about it too much."

She was then going to say that she would just tag along with Naruto, but Temari spoke first. "How about you come with me and have a girl's day out." The older girl said. Before Fuu could say anything Temari grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the office.

Kankuro then said while shaking his head, "Temari always complains that there aren't any girls to hang out with in the Sand Village, but anyway let's go to my workshop."

Naruto nodded and the teens left. With his office now empty Gaara got back to fighting his most recent enemy paperwork.

(Streets of the Sand Village)

Temari was still dragging a very shocked Fuu through the streets of the Sand Village. After Fuu's shock wore off and she got the courage up she asked, "Where are we going?"

Temari glanced back, "Well first we are going to do some shopping, then go to the hot springs, and then go to the beauty spa."

Fuu quickly jerked her hand out of Temari's saying, "You know what I think I'll just go check up on Naruto." She had been to a hot springs and beauty spas before. The one time she went to a hot spring was after a mission a boy on her team pulled a prank on her that ended with her naked in front of most of the males at the hot springs. Fuu's experience with beauty spas wasn't much better. After she became a ninja she thought that people would start to be nice to her and ended up "befriending" some other Kunoichi from her year. They had then taken her to a beauty spa and with the help of some of the workers there given her the worst makeover of all time.

These two events happened within a week of each other. After both of these incidents, Fuu became more secluded and isolated from everyone in her village.

Temari was skilled at reading people's emotions and she saw that Fuu had gotten a bit freaked out when she heard where they were going. Temari knew that the only explanation for this was that she had had a bad experience in her past and was having some trust issues. Because she wanted to go back to Naruto which meant that she trusted Him. With this information, Temari made a plan.

Stopping and looking at her Temari then said, "I know this must be hard to trust me as you just met me. It took Gaara some time to trust me and Kankuro once he started to change. Well, he did trust that we wouldn't hurt him, but he didn't trust us with the deeper things. So I understand if you want I'll show you to Kankuro's workshop."

Fuu thought about it for a second and before changing her mind. 'Naruto won't have let me come with her unless he trusted her. Naruto did say I should trust people more, so I guess I'll try.' Fuu thought.

Taking a breath she said, "I guess we can try what you were wanting to do."

Temari smiled and said, "Come on let's go and you don't have to do anything you don't want."

(Kankuro's workshop)

Kankuro's workshop was part of the Kazekage's estate. In the Sand Village the Kazekage was commonly passed down through a family, so a large estate was made to house the Kazekage and their family.

Kankuro was looking at a basic blueprint that Naruto had handed him. After thinking about it for a while he said "This is very interesting. I have seen some stuff like this before."

"Do you think you can make it for me?" Naruto asked.

"Ya I can make it will take a bit, but I could have it done in five days or so. Also, we might be friends but this will take a long time and the materials aren't cheap." Kankuro responded.

After finishing that up Naruto went to the hotel that he and Fuu had rented rooms from earlier that day and collected their stuff. He headed back to the the Kazekage's estate and put his and Fuu's stuff in different guest rooms.

(Kazekage estate)

Hearing the door Naruto looked up from his seals seeing the sun working its way into the horizon as Fuu and Temari walked in.

Naruto couldn't help blush at seeing Fuu enter. She was freshly cleaned up from her day at the spa. Fuu didn't look that much different but, all of the dirt and grime that had built up after the river incident was now gone. Fuu didn't have any makeup on, as she didn't let the workers at the beauty spa put any on her, but her finger and toe nails were painted to match her eyes. There wasn't much difference but naruto thought she looked beautiful. Her hair had been cut perfectly cut which was a change from the jagged spiky locks of hair she used to have.

'Wait is Naruto blushing at me?' Fuu thought to herself.

Temari said "Hey, Naruto. What are you working on?" Temari hadn't missed Naruto's reaction and quickly putting two and two together. Based on how Fuu had talked about Naruto earlier that day it was clear to her that they had both had a feeling for each other. She could also tell that neither knew about the others feeling.

Naruto got his composer back and replied "Oh this is a scroll that will let me talk with Gaara in after we leave. It has a seal that will send whatever I write to him and he can reply by writing in his."

Temari was surprised that Naruto was able to make something like that. She knew he had changed from the last time she saw him just by looking at him, but this was more than she expected.

Naruto and Temari continued to talk while Fuu left with some her shopping bags and took them to the guest quarters. She saw one of the room's had an open door and that her stuff was in it Figuring it was hers she walked in and put down her bags. She then started to pull out everything out and start to sort it into some scrolls, but she couldn't get the thought about how Naruto reacted to her out of her head. After she had gotten everything sorted and packed away she heard a knock on the door.

Fuu opened the door and saw Naruto and Temari standing in the hallway. Naruto leaned on the door before saying, "Kankuro just got back and Gaara will be here soon, so we were thinking of going to out to get dinner in thirty minutes."

Fuu nodded causing Naruto to walk off to get ready leaving Temari. The remaining blond then said, "You should wear that dress you got."

Fuu blushed as the mentioned dress was a bit provocative. She fumbled with her hands while mumbling "I don't kno ... ".

Temari gave Fuu a sly smile and said "You know he likes you. You saw him when he walked in. Just imagine him when he sees you in that dress."

Fuu blushed, slamming the door. Breathing heavily while trying to get the blush on her face under control. After a minute she pulled out the dress that Temari had helped her pick out. Well, more like politely forced her to buy. It was an orange and white dress and was less revealing in most areas than her usual attire, but overall it was more provocative. It had a lower cut showing more cleavage than her usual shirt which just compressed it to keep it out of the way in fighting. It also hugged her curves tighter showing off her womanly figure. It also just a bit shorter than the skirt she normally wore.

She thought about what she and Temari had talked about today. She had admitted to liking Naruto and with a lot of prodding had also admitted to liking him more than just a friend. Temari then also insisted that Naruto also liked her. She wasn't so sure about that, but knew that Naruto was her friend and cared about her.

She took one last long look at the dress before taking a breath, placing it on her bed and went off to take a quick shower.

(with Naruto, Kankuro, and Gaara)

The three males were waiting around for Fuu and Temari to finish getting ready. Gaara was wearing his Kazekage clothes while Naruto and Kankuro were dressed in formal attire. This was forced upon them by Temari neither was happy about it but seeing the wisdom in letting her get her way went along with it.

Naruto was talking to Gaara about the scroll he had to made for him early that day when Temari and Fuu entered the living room. Naruto looked up and when he saw Fuu he didn't even know what to think. He was lucky he was able to quickly recover because if he hadn't then he would have gotten blood all over his clothes.

Both Fuu and Temari noticed the expression on his face when he saw the green haired girl. Fuu was becoming more confident that Naruto had feelings for her.

Temari then said with a smirk, "Ready?"

Everyone nodded as they all got up to leave. When they were at front door Gaara said "By the way, I asked my two apprentices to join us for dinner. They will meet us on the way there."

Temari had a little frown that no one noticed. 'Those two better not try anything because I don't think Fuu could take it.' Temari thought. She liked Gaara's apprentices as they helped Gaara learn to be better with people, but they were quite flirty.

On the way to the restaurant they heard "Hey Gaara." Everyone turned to see two well dressed girls.

The girls came up to them and Gaara said, "Hello girls."

Gaara turned to Naruto before saying, "These are my two apprentice Matsuri and Yukata. Girls this is my friend Naruto that I have told you about."

Naruto chuckled with a bow. Matsuri and Yukata both smiled back.

On the way to the restaurant, Yukata started chatting with Naruto. They were both laughing during their chat. Fuu watched them the entire time flipping between jealousy and depression. Not feeling comfortable she didn't say anything as they walked. Temari noticed this and rubbed the bridge of her nose while she thought 'Damn it Yukata.'

They soon got to the restaurant and were seated. Fuu was hoping to sit next to Naruto, but Yukata quickly took the seat next to him and Kankuro sat on the other side.

Temari gave Kankuro a death glare when he sat down next to Naruto. Kankuro gave a look back asking what he did wrong. Temari just shook her head leaving Kankuro confused.

As the dinner progressed Fuu began to feel less sad and more jealous/angry. 'He is supposed to be talking with me and looking at me, not her.' As angry as Fuu was she didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to enter a conversation or even how to start one. Getting frustrated Fuu got up and started to walk away from the table.

Temari knew exactly what was wrong and was feeling a bit frustrated herself. She had finally talked Fuu into telling Naruto and now there was this other girl talking to him not even giving her a chance to talk. As Fuu was walked away Temari asked, "Going somewhere?"

Fuu responded quickly trying to hide her continually growing frustration , "I am… I just need some fresh air."

Once Fuu was out of earshot Temari turned to Naruto and said, "You should go and make sure she doesn't wander off and get lost."

Naruto was about to say something but before he could Temari gave him a look that promised him pain if he didn't do what she said. Conceding the point he got up to go after Fuu.

Now that Fuu wasn't looking at the object of her anger she was able to calm down a bit. 'God damn it this is all my fault I should have just said something.'

This moment of self-pity didn't last long as Naruto walked out and came over to her. Fuu saw him then with a hint of venom in her voice said, "I thought you were talking with Yukata."

Naruto shrugged and said, "Well Temari sent me to make sure that you don't wonder off and get lost."

Fuu turned away from Naruto and started to walk, Naruto followed. They didn't talk as Fuu walked aimlessly through the Sand Village. Naruto just followed letting Fuu be his guide.

Naruto could tell that she was upset, but decided not to say anything at first. However after 6 or so blocks he decided it was time to say something. "Fuu, whats wrong?"

The cold night air hadn't cooled Fuu off any and she was growing steadily angrier as they continued to walk. She angrily mumbled, "I am fine."

Naruto could tell that something was off, so he stopped Fuu grabbing her hand. This made Fuu turn so that they were looking each other in the eyes. Naruto then said "Fuu you can talk to me. Please tell me what's wrong."

Fuu's anger was had now hit it's limit and she yelled, "You're what's wrong."

Naruto didn't understand and was about to ask what was wrong when Fuu said, "Because I love you."

Then grabbing Naruto by his collar and she pulled his face down their lips met in a rough kiss. It wasn't perfect by a long shot but for something in the heat of the moment it got the point across.

In that moment a lot of things ran through both of their heads. All of Naruto's doubts about how he felt about the girl in front of him left. He knew that this is what love was supposed to feel like and if it wasn't he didn't care.

'What the fuck have I done. He is going to hate me now.' Kept running through Fuu's mind for that brief second their lips connected. But to her, it just felt right to be kissing Naruto.

It only lasted for that moment before she began to pull away. She didn't get that far when Naruto wrapped his arm around her waist and they were kissing again. The shock of their first was gone, both knowing more of what they wanted as their lips meet a second time.

Fuu understood what this meant and it made her happy. Her arms moved from his collar to the back of his neck pulling herself further into desire for them to be one pushing her forward as she fell further into him.

She remembered why she loved getting hugs from Naruto. When he held her she felt warm, safe, and all of her problems just went away. She didn't feel the pain of being banished or the stress of being hunted by the Akatsuki. It was the only time she truly felt completely happy.

They eventually pulled away from the kiss their arms still wrapped around each other. Then in a shaky voice she asked, "You ... love … me?"

Naruto nodded then with a smile said "For a while, I didn't know. Back in my village, there was this girl … well, I don't know, but I thought I loved her. Then she got mad at me and said she never wanted to see me again, but my feelings for her didn't change. Then just recently I started feeling something different towards you and I didn't really know what it was, and I guess I still don't since I am not that great at this type of stuff. But I am pretty sure I love you."

It wasn't the most romantic or convincing thing, but as they stared into each other's eyes they understood each other.

Fuu moved her arms from around Naruto's neck to around his chest. She then pulled herself into Naruto's chest. Now that Fuu had calmed down she was starting to feel cold and Naruto was always a good source of warmth.

Naruto asked, "Should we go back?"

Fuu shook her head into Naruto's chest and said, "No I want to just be with my boyfriend." With many of her doubts and questions answered, Fuu's mind was much more at ease and she got back a bit of her bravado back.

Naruto was slightly shocked by what Fuu said. He quietly said "Boyfriend?" just barely over a whisper.

Fuu nodded into Naruto's chest and mumbled in affirmation.

Naruto smiled and said more confidently "boyfriend" and pulled Fuu in a bit closer.

Naruto then asked, "So what do you want to do?"

Fuu simply said, "I don't know, but don't let go your warm."

Looking down Naruto noticed just how thin Fuus's dress was. While slipping out out of the hug and his jacket he said, "Here take my jacket.".

Fuu then pulled the orange jacket tightly around her and leaned into Naruto. Even though she wasn't that cold anymore she found comfort in just being with Naruto.

They enjoyed the comfortable silence and just being with each other. Naruto looked around and seeing that they were in a side alley. He then got an idea and said, "Hold on."

Naruto then quickly grabbed onto her while she instinctively latched onto him as he used a body flicker. Fuu let out a little squeak when they started to move. In only a few seconds they were at the top of a tower that was part of the Kazekage's estate.

As Naruto looked into the night sky he began to speak "Back in my village I always liked to look at the night sky. It's so big that it just made me think that all my problems are so small. It helped me get through some hard times when I was younger."

Naruto then sat down and leaned against the railing and looked up at the sky. Fuu sat down next to him and started to look up at the night sky with him. She leaned into him resting her back on his chest. Naruto wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her close.

They spent the next hour just looking up at the stars and enjoying a comfortable silence. Eventually, Fuu's eyes began to close and she fell asleep.

Naruto noticed when he felt Fuu's head lull to the side. 'It's late I should just take her to bed.'

Naruto shifted around and picked her up bridal style. Fuu's hands gently held onto Naruto's shirt not waking as he picked her up.

Naruto carried Fuu to her room and laid her down on the bed. However when Naruto tried to pull away Fuu's hands didn't let go. Naruto tried to get out of her grasp without waking her. Naruto then tried to figure out what he should do and only one idea came to him.

Naruto carefully got into the bed and laid down, because of how Fuu had grabbed onto Naruto her head laid against his shoulder and she lay partly on top of him. Once Naruto was settle looked down at Fuu and couldn't help but think about how cute she looked snuggled up against him.

Naruto then laid his head back to calm his nerves and go to sleep. Eventually, he settled down and fell asleep.

That night when after they both went to asleep Temari came to check on Fuu. As the door opened slowly with barely a whisper she saw Naruto and Fuu sleeping. Temari smiled and closed the door seeing that her plan was successful even if it didn't go as she expected.

The next day Naruto woke up and tried to move, but realised he couldn't. Finding a weight on his chest he opened his eyes and saw Fuu laying on him still asleep. Which reminded him of what happened last night causing a small blush came to his face.

Just then Fuu let out a yawn and slowly opened her eyes and Naruto smiled seeing the orange eyes he thought were so beautiful.

After Fuu's eyes opened the first thing she saw was Naruto's face. She then realized she was laying on his chest. At this point, her brain went into overdrive and alarm bells began ringing upon concluding that she had been sleeping on Naruto. Once this registered in her mind she screamed and jumped up.

She then stutterd out "bed? ... last night?"

A light blush came to Naruto's face, "Well we were looking up at the sky last night and you fell asleep, so I took you to bed. When I got here I tried to put you in your bed, but you wouldn't let go of my shirt. I didn't want to wake you up So I .." Naruto trailed off a bit at the end.

Fuu's blush grew the more Naruto described what happened that night. She then mumbled "sorry"

Naruto pulled Fuu into a comforting hug and said "Don't worry about it. It isn't a problem." Naruto was telling the truth because he didn't mind. In fact, after he had gotten over the awkwardness of sleeping with Fuu he found it an oddly pleasant experience.

They embraced for a few seconds until a low rumble was heard coming from Fuu's stomach. This was when they remembered that they skipped dinner last night. Fuu's face lit up again and she buried her face into Naruto's chest.

Naruto smiled then said, "Do you want to go and get some breakfast?"

Fuu nodded and mumbled "Yes please." into Naruto's chest.

They got up while Naruto said, "We should probably get into some clean clothes." Fuu numbly nodded in reply.

After they changed they went and got some breakfast.

(Hokage's office)

Jiraiya entered Tsunade's office through his traditional window before saying, "Miss me?"

Tsunade turned around with the hint of frown and asked, "How did it go?"

"Well the first place I went was Whirlpool and Naruto was defiantly there and he did a lot of training, but it seemed that he hadn't been there for a while. I waited for a few days, but he didn't show up so I left a note for him if he ever goes back," Jiraiya said.

Tsunade sighed sadly because Jiraiya was unable to find Naruto. Moving on to other topics she then asked, "How did the meeting go with the Mist and Cloud."

"Better than expected the Mist will work with us so long as they get there Jinchuuriki back and the Raikage said maybe," Jiraiya replied.

Tsunade was surprised and said, "The Raikage actually is considering working with us?"

"He seems to care more about protecting his Brother then holding onto some old grudge," Jiraiya said.

Tsunade nodded a slight smirk beginning to show. They had gained some new allies for the fight against the Akatsuki. "What about the Village hidden in Sand?"

"I am going to go, but I have some research I want to do first," Jiraiya said with a perverted grin.

Tsunade then gave him a glare that promised pain if he did what she thought he was going to do.

Jiraiya then adopted a nervous smile and said, "Or maybe I'll go to the Sand Village now." He then jumped out the window before Tsunade could do anything. Tsunade glared at Jiraiya running off for a few minutes before she eventually got back to her paperwork.

(Village hidden in Sand)

It had been a week since Naruto and Fuu had arrived in the the Sand Village and a lot had happened in that week. Kankuro had finished the project that Naruto had asked him to complete. Naruto and Fuu had grown closer. Naruto had also told Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara about his parents. He also talked to them about the Akatsuki and had given them a copy of the Bingo book he got from Komei, but he decided against telling them about Komei. Naruto had also repaired Gaara's seal and gave him the communication scroll he had made.

Currently, Naruto, Fuu, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were at the main gate of the Sand Village.

"So Naruto what are you and Fuu going to do now?" Gaara asked.

"I was given an offer for a place to stay and train till the Akatsuki come out to strike. We'll go there and train." Naruto said.

"Just to let you know I am planning on doing some mercenary and bounty hunter work to make money, but I will be sure to not do anything that would hurt the the the Sand Village or its allies," Naruto said.

"Even the Leaf?" Gaara asked.

Naruto scowled a little at the mention of the leaf and said "It's best to just ignore them and not interfere with them."

Gaara was surprised a little with the venom in Naruto's voice as he had never seen it before, but it did make sense to him after what the Leaf did to him. He then said, "Well then I wish you luck and remember to come and visit."

Naruto and Gaara shook hands before Naruto said, "I will." With that Naruto and Fuu turned and left the Sand Village.

End chapter

(A/N)

Thanks to my beta dawnwatch for helping make this better.

And now the shipping chapter is complete. I know it's not great I am not very romantic person, so I am not that good at writing it. Sorry any way there won't be tons of romance.

I know this fic has been a bit short on action ... Ok, there has been no action, but that will change soon. One more chapter then a time skip and we will start to have lots of fights.

(B/A It will be awesome I don't know what it looks like but I shall endeavor to make it so everyone can see the sheer awesome of it.)

The communication scroll is similar to the one used by kabuto and Disonasu during the power arc. But instead of transcribing voices it sends written stuff.

I don't think I explained how I am dividing this fic into parts before, so this is how it will work.

Part 1: intro/banishment

Part 2: shipping

Part 3: Shippuden era

Please review I read them all.

I am looking for some feedback as to what people think would be a good summoning contract for Naruto to have. I was thinking dragon, but I know that is super cliche so I would like to do something different. However I also don't want to pick something simply to be original. Like the badger contract might be more original, but when compared to firebreathing lizard that also happen to fly it just seems silly. So give me some suggestions.

Update: on 10/22/16 I changed a little thing in the last section. It isn't a big change just something to line up better with future plans for this fic.


	8. Chapter 8 part 2

(A/N) I just wanted to say I made a small change to the last section of ch 7 on 10/22/16. It was minor but it had to be made to line up with some stuff in the future.

Story start

(One day after naruto and Fuu left the Sand Village)

Jiraiya was walking with Temari to the hotel that Gaara had set up for him. He had just finished a meeting with Gaara talking about the Akatsuki. Gaara had informed him there was a rumor that Sasori of the red sand was a member. Gaara had promised a copy of Sasori's file, but Jiraiya would need to wait until tomorrow for a copy.

They soon arrived at the hotel and Jiraiya was shown to his room.

Once Jiraiya was alone in his room he set about working on his latest novel until the sun had set. He peeked out the window looking both ways before he drew the curtains closed. He placed a few seals to prevent eavesdropping. Once security measures were up he ran through some handsigns and slammed his hand onto the floor. There was a puff of smoke and a bunch of small toads appeared.

Before entering the Sand he had summoned a bunch toads to infiltrate the Sand and see if they could find any information on Naruto or Fuu.

"Did you guys find anything?" Jiraiya asked his toads.

One of the toads spoke "I was able to get into the entry and exit logs at the village gate. Naruto and another person named Fuu entered at the same time and the also left at the same time."

This confirmed his suspicion that Naruto was traveling with Fuu. He would have started taking notes for his next novel if the situation wasn't so serious. Jiraiya then asked, "When were they here?"

The toad responded, "They got here a little over a week ago and they left yesterday."

Jiraiya cursed under his breath. 'They could be anywhere in this desert by now. I doubt that Gaara and his siblings will tell me anything. They haven't been very helpful except for stuff on the Akatsuki. Gaara seemed to be hiding something during our meeting. Hell, they are probably stalling me by having me wait for Sasori's profile. I don't have time to waste, I have to go and find Naruto. I'll need to leave a message asking for Sasori's profile to be sent to the Leaf. I'll have also to tell Tsunade.'

Jiraiya pulled out some paper quickly wrote out two notes. One was to Tsunade and the other to Temari asking her to forward the profile and that he was leaving because of an emergency.

Jiraiya gave the note to Tsunade to a toad and then quickly packed up and left.

Jiraiya quickly dropped off the note with the front desk at the hotel before quickly leaving the Sand Village.

(Later that night in the Sand Village)

Temari went to the Hotel that Jiraiya was staying at. It was the hotel that all foreign Ninja were required to stay in when they come to the sand, so it was heavily monitored and the movements of the guests were carefully tracked. So when a S rank ninja suddenly leaves Gaara was informed and he had sent her to investigate.

When she got there the front desk gave her the note that Jiraiya had left. She quickly reading it as she was walked back to her brother's office. It really didn't say much only that an emergency had come up and he had to leave.

She cursed under her breath and went to go and report of Gaara. 'He must have figured out that Naruto was here. I hope that we bought him enough time.'

She didn't bother knocking and just opened the door when she got to Gaara's office to find that Gaara and Kankuro were already waiting. She gave the note to Gaara and while explaining the situation.

Gaara sat in his chair thinking for a bit before Temari asked "What are we going to do just let Naruto's useless perverted godfather go off and find him."

Gaara sighed then nodded saying "Yes we can't do more without unwanted questions coming up. Naruto isn't as stupid and naive as he used to be. He'll cover his tracks. Doing more would make it obvious that we are hiding something, so we can't make a big deal out of this. Kankuro gets the copy of Sasori's file and send it to the leaf. Don't be quick about it."

Kankuro nodded and left.

Temari grumbled but said nothing. When she had learned that Jiraiya was Naruto's godfather her opinion of him fell a lot. She didn't like him to begin with because he spied on hot springs, but had respect him for his prowess as a shinobi and besides the pervert thing thought he was a pretty good guy. However once she learned he was Naruto's godfather she began to dislike him more and more. He was Naruto's godfather and he basically ignored the boy for over a decade.

Temari groaned before saying "We should do at least something like hmm … maybe send him a message with scroll he left with us." Trying desperately to think of something to help her friend.

Gaara thought for a second and then nodded he pulled out a scroll and began to write out a message.

(Land of Wind)

Naruto and Fuu were setting up camp in a small area surrounded by rocks to protect them from the wind and sand of the desert when Naruto had sensed that a message had come from Gaara.

Naruto pulled out the scroll and read the message that Gaara had sent. As Naruto read the message he got angrier and angrier.

Fuu noticed and began walking over to Naruto before she gently grabbed onto his arm and pulling him closer. This slowly calmed Naruto down a bit before she asked, "What happened?"

Naruto took a deep breath, "Jiraiya went to the Sand village today and then he left suddenly. Gaara thinks that Jiraiya found out about us and is trying to find us."

Fuu sighed then asked "What should we?"

Naruto then replied "Let's travel through the night we should get to where we were wanting to go in the early morning. Once we get to the island he won't be able to find us and we can rest there."

Fuu nodded and they both quickly packed up camp and started moving south.

(Coast of the Land of Wind)

Naruto and Fuu had just got to the coast and decided to take a short break on the beach since they had been running all night. Fuu sat next to Naruto with an arm around her shoulder sitting there taking in the view for a bit before she asked "So where is this place we are looking for?"

"It's an old military base on an island off the coast of Land of Wind called Ko island. It was once a base for the Land of Ocean's military but that country fell apart a long time ago now all that is left are ruins and the old capital which are now a small port town. When the Land of Ocean fell apart it was slowly annexed by the Land of Wind." Naruto said taking a breath before continuing.

"It's a few miles off the coast so we will have to water walk to get there. There are only two ways to get in, an underwater entrance or climb up the side at a specific spot. I know how to do both so we just need to pick once we get there." Naruto said. Fuu nodded understanding.

"What's this place look like?" Fuu asked

"The entire island is surrounded by steep cliffs, the quickly drop down once you get into the island forming a natural wall. The base is mostly underground with a few above ground buildings. There is a small lake on the island and an enclosed beach, so we can train some of our water jutsu there. The beach is the island side of the underwater entrance. The rest of the island is a forest. It's about 50 square miles so there is tons of room for us to do training. It's also pretty far from any other town so we don't have to worry about people finding us." Naruto answered.

Fuu smiled and said, "It sounds like a great place, but we will have to go and get stuff like food."

"It will be a bit of a trek but there is a port town on the mainland not too far from here. We can do the same thing I did when I was in the Whirlpool and just do monthly trips to get supplies."

Fuu let out a moan and said, "That sounds like so much work."

Naruto chuckled and put an arm around Fuu and said "Think about it like this we can spend the whole time together and not worry about training on those days. Anyway, Once I learn the Hiraishin it will be a lot quicker to go."

Fuu smiled and buried her face into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto smiled allowing his arm to slide around her waist pulling her closer. Despite traveling through mountains and desert it had been a great few weeks with Fuu.

(Ko Island)

Naruto and Fuu had just climbed over the cliffs that protected the island. They had quickly found the base. It was next to the enclosed beach. On the beach, there was a small dock and a few small buildings. The building seemed to have been used for storage and a small workshop. While the dock was used for some sort of underwater boat.

Not too far away was another group of buildings. "Most of these were for running the day to day above ground operations, but some like that big one over there was a mess hall and that one was the hospital and headquarters. All of the housing, another mess hall, and the hospital are underground." Naruto said while pointing to the two biggest buildings.

Most of the buildings were made of wood and had fallen apart, but the headquarters was made of stone so it was in better shape.

"Where is the entrance to the underground base?" Fuu asked.

"In the headquarters building. Let's go down there and see what's here if after that we should look around and see what is worth salvaging." Naruto responded.

"Ya, most of the building look empty and don't look good for much more than firewood at this point," Fuu said.

They walked up to the largest building. It was two stories and made out of stone. The windows and doors were all broken and only some shards of glass and planks of wood remained. They entered it and followed the instructions that Komei had included with the map of where the island was. They soon found the entrance to the underground part of the base and went down.

In the underground part of the base had two levels the top one was a living and work area and the bottom was mainly for storage. The top floor had five team suits. Each suit had four bedrooms, one bathroom, and a small common area. There were also 5 suites that had a large bedroom, an office, and a bathroom which were originally meant for high-ranking officers and government officials. There was also a medical area, small mess hall, and a large dormitory with tons of bunk beds. There was also a large common area for the whole floor.

"This place was used as the evaluation base for the military and government if the capital fell. They could put more soldiers in tents or add buildings if they needed above ground." Naruto said. All of this information came from notes that were with the map.

"We should go and see if there is anything worth salvaging," Fuu said.

Naruto nodded "Let's start with above ground. There likely won't be much so we should just get it out of the way."

Both Naruto and Fuu looked around the aboveground part of the base. They didn't find anything, as anything left above ground had deteriorated to the point of uselessness.

"Well we didn't find anything, but we know the layout of this place a bit better," Naruto said. Fuu nodded and then they headed into the bunker.

"We should pull all the furniture into the big dormitory and the tools and supplies can go in the mess hall," Fuu said and Naruto nodded his agreement before making a large number of shadow clones and sending them off on jobs.

Fuu was surprised at the sudden increase in the number of Narutos, "What jutsu did you just use?"

"Oh, this is the Shadow clone jutsu. They are physical clones so they can do things. Also when they dispel I get their memories. I'll teach it to you as they can help a lot with training." Naruto said.

"Wait how are they supposed to help with training?" Fuu asked.

"When they dispel they transfer their memories back to you. So you can have a shadow clone work on chakra control and it will be the same as if you worked on chakra control. It also helps that we can make tons of shadow clones to work at the same time."

Fuu was flabbergasted and asked "Wait so have a clone train is just as good as training ourselves" Fuu pictured herself in sitting back in a chair watching tons of clones do all her training and a small smile came across her face.

"For things like physical training it doesn't help but for learning jutsu and chakra control it is amazing. I have found it does work for studying, but it takes a clone ten times as long to read the scrolls." Naruto said.

Fuu's eye went wide when she thought of all the thing people could do with them. "Why doesn't everyone use them since they sound so amazing?" Fuu asked.

"Well most Jonin don't have enough chakra to make it worthwhile and even then they couldn't do it all day every day there bodies with just give out. However, since we are Jinchuuriki, so we have large reserves to burn through also we recover faster." Naruto answered.

Fuu nodded and said "Can you teach me?" in an enthusiastic voice.

Naruto nodded and said, "Ya, we will need to do a lot of training in the next year and a half."

They continued talking about training until all of Naruto's clones dispelled and he got their memories. Naruto then said "The clones are done moving everything. We should go through everything and set up the base."

Fuu yawned and rested her head on Naruto's shoulder. She then said, "How about we just set up some beds and deal with everything else tomorrow." In a sleepy voice.

Naruto stopped to think for a second and realized that he was also tired from running all night to walking across 20 miles of sea to making 100 shadow clones. There was so much to do he didn't realize that he was, so tired. Naruto relaxed he wrapped an arm around Fuu and let the idea of just going to wash over him.

He then said, "Ya everything can wait for tomorrow lets just go to bed."

They just picked out a couple of beds that were in the dormitory and slept on them as they were. They decided to set up bedrooms tomorrow.

(Next day)

Naruto and Fuu got a bit of a late start to their day before opting to work in the kitchen. They were both hungry and wanted to get the kitchen up and running a soon as possible.

Most of the cooking equipment was still in good condition but a bit dirty. Luckily the water was still working and there was a bit of old soap, so cleaning was easy enough.

Once they got enough stuff cleaned they made breakfast. Unfortunately, the oven and stove didn't work however Naruto knew a few seals that could function as burners, so he quickly made some. They then made and ate breakfast before moving on to dealing with the rest of the base.

There was a bunch of beds, desks, and other furniture piled up in the dormitory. Most of it was in decent condition as all the doors had been sealed closed.

They took inventory they had more beds, dressers, and other random furniture then they could possibly use so they pick out the two best of whatever they wanted and claimed bedrooms. They both took one of the suites with an office.

After getting their rooms set up but Naruto and Fuu went to the bottom level to see if there was anything in the storage rooms.

They didn't find much but there were a few ninja tools like kunai, shuriken, and other stuff. It wasn't enough to supply an army, but for just two shinobi it was enough to last awhile.

"So what do you want to do with these rooms they are pretty big so there has to be something we can think of," Fuu said.

Naruto thought for a second and said "I think one of these would make a good library so I can access my scrolls easier. I'll need most of the bookshelves, a table or two, and some chairs."

Fuu said, "That's a good idea I think I will turn one of these into a place for my bugs I can use the extra furniture to make hives."

"That sounds great. But first get everything cleaned up and organized. Everything we don't need can go into the other storage room." Naruto made a new set of clones and set them to work.

They decided to turn the mess hall into a dojo, so they had somewhere to practice inside if they ever needed it.

It took a day and a half to get the entire base cleaned and everything put away even with the help from shadow clones.

After everything had been swept up Naruto and Fuu took the rest of the day off and decided to begin training the next day.

(Next day)

Naruto and Fuu woke up and started on the training regimen they had come up with the day before.

They would start every day with making shadow clones and have them do a variety of things. They both had their clones work on Chakra control and nature manipulation. Naruto mostly attempted lightning and water manipulation but did have a few clones continue with wind.

Fuu also worked on water and lightning. On the second day on the island, Naruto had her use a piece of chakra paper for the first time to figure out what her affinities were. It turned out she had two Lightning and Water meaning she had the gale style kekkei genkai.

After making clones Naruto and Fuu would then spar in taijutsu and kenjutsu. However, there attempts with kenjutsu were met with little success.

Fuu didn't have a lot of strength even with large reserves, so she supplemented her fighting style with wielding kunai or the water swords a signature jutsu of the Hidden Waterfall.

Naruto also wanted to try supplementing his taijutsu with blades. He had Kankuro make him a set that was concealed in a set of bracers and could be brought in and out easily using chakra manipulation.

Minato had designed the blades based on puppets captured by the Leaf Village during the second shinobi war. Minato thought that the wrist blades would fit well with his style of combat especially with the Hiraishin. However, he was never able to make them.

After hand to hand combat training they would mostly work on ninjutsu or study. Naruto had already read all that he wanted to out of his library, so he mostly worked on learning more jutsu. Fuu worked with her bugs a lot as most of her hive was destroyed when she fell into the flooded river in the Land of Mountains, but she also read some scrolls and a few books from Naruto's library.

They continued this for two months till they got a visit from someone.

(two months later)

Naruto and Fuu had just finished their morning taijutsu and were outside working on Ninjutsu. Naruto then heard a voice that said "Having fun?"

Naruto at first tensed and quickly turned around, but relaxed when he saw it was Komei. Fuu who had never meet him before was still tense and throw a handful of shuriken at Komei.

Komei dodged them with ease before saying "Hey that wasn't nice."

Naruto then said, "It's ok Fuu he's Komei that guy I told you about."

She was still tense but didn't make any move to attack again.

Komei then asked, "How has your training been so far?"

Naruto smiled "It's been going great we have been making a lot of progress." Naruto responded enthusiastically.

"Good. How about we have a spar and see where you are. You and Fuu vs me. If you two want to be ready to fight the Akatsuki then you will have to be able to beat me or at least go toe to toe with me."

Naruto nodded whole Fuu stepped forward getting into a position to fight.

(Five hours later)

Both Naruto and Fuu lay on the ground out of breath and low on chakra. Their clothes were torn a bit, and some cuts were healing on both of them.

Komei sat up in a tree looking down on them. While showing signs he had fought a long and hard fight he was doing a lot better than the two Jinchuuriki.

"You two are good. Fuu you're almost A-rank and Naruto you are A-rank, but the Akatsuki are all S-rank. Good news is that the Akatsuki are likely going to shift their plans back by a year. All the villages with Jinchuuriki are locking them down and preparing to fight the Akatsuki. They were partly banking on surprise, but they lost that. Also, they aren't at full capacity right now with only Nine members."

Naruto had just caught his breath and sat up. "What should we work on?"

Komei answered "I caught both of you in a low-level genjutsu so you will need to learn how to break and detect those. Naruto you are pretty good at stealth, but Fuu you need to work on it. You both use blades in your fighting styles, but neither of you is that great at using them, so I will be working with both of you on that. Also, you two lack experience. You just haven't been in enough fights. I'll find some missions on the black market for the two of you to do."

Komei then jumped down from the tree and said, "I am going to go and get a room set up."

Naruto sat up and said, "We should probably go back inside."

Fuu lifted her arms at pointed them at Naruto and said, "Carry me." While showing Naruto puppy dog eyes.

Naruto had no resistance to her orange eyes. He smiled and picked her up bridal style and carried her back into the bunker.

(One year after arriving at Ko island)

Naruto was sitting at a table working on the seal that Ashina had given him when after he left the vault. The seal had been scrambled and he had to figure out how to put it back together properly, and then figure out what it did. Naruto could feel that he was close, but he wasn't quite there yet.

He started to turn the seal and look at it from different angles and before it clicked. He saw how the pieces needed to be aligned. Naruto was then able to quickly untangle the seal and figure out it was a key seal. 'This must correlate to lock seal that probably in the whirlpool. I'll have to go back there and talk to Ashina about this. The problem was how to get there. I could use the Hiraishin, but I would need to get Komei to place some of the makers, so I will be able to pass through the Land of fire.'

Naruto got up to go and find Komei. It didn't take long as Komei was outside not far from the bunker. He was working with Fuu on stealth, by having her go through obstacle courses while not being able to be detected.

Naruto walked up to komei and asked "I need to get to the whirlpool. I was planning on using Hiraishin, but I don't have any tags past the Land of Wind can you put some of the other sides, so I can teleport over there."

Komei though for a few seconds, then said, "Yes that is a good idea, but give me lots of tags so I can place them all over the elemental countries that way you have a network of tags and can get from one end of the continent to the other quickly."

Naruto nodded at the idea and said "I'll go make a bunch of tags. They'll be done by tomorrow."

Komei nodded, but suddenly pulled out a kunai and throw at a tree. Fuu fell out of that tree and he shouted, "Just because I am talking doesn't mean you can get sloppy."

Fuu grumbled as she got up and walked back to the starting line with her shoulders slumped.

Naruto then said, "At least she is getting better."

Komei nodded and said, "She'll need another month or so, but she has made a lot of progress."

(later that day)

Since he and Komei were leaving for a while he went to go tell Fuu. He found her sitting on a couch reading a scroll. He sat down next to her and she climbed into his lap and snuggled into his chest. Naruto wrapped his arms around her and said "I am going back to the Whirlpool I don't know how long I will be gone. Komei will also be gone for a while. He is going to be placed hiraishin tags all over the place so that we can move around quicker."

Once Naruto was done Fuu buried her head into his chest and said, "I'll miss you."

Naruto replied, "I'll miss you too, but I did make this." He then pulled out a scroll and handed it to Fuu. He the said, "This is the same type of scroll that I use to talk with Gaara so we will be able to write each other messages."

Fuu took the Scroll and kissed him on the cheek and said, "Thank you."

(Land of wind)

Naruto had teleported himself and Komei to a place near the border between the Lands of Wind and Rivers. Komei then said "I'll send a message through the scroll once I get to the Land Waterfalls. I'll leave some makers along the way and I will record them on a map."

Naruto nodded and Komei left. Naruto had teleported them to an empty part of the desert, so he worked on some training while he waited for Komei to contact. him.

It took Komei five hours to make contact. Once naruto saw his message he teleported to the marker he thought would most likely be the one where Komei was. He was right and once he got there he had to take a few seconds to reorient himself. Naruto was able to use the Hiraishin, but he was far from ready as he needed 30 or so seconds to put himself back together after every jump. It was a lot better than the first time when he used it where he threw up and had to lay down for ten minutes before he could move again.

Once Naruto had his bearings back Komei handed him a map. It was a map of the elemental countries with a few dots that represented location the locations that had a hiraishin tag, now it was updated with the tags that Komei had placed.

After that they started to move towards the Land of Hot water every so often they would leave a hiraishin tag and Naruto would mark it on his map.

It took two days to get to the Land of Hot water once they got to the coast Naruto and komei went their separate ways.

(Hidden Whirlpool Village)

Naruto walked through the empty village to the Uzumaki compound. He walked into the main hall and to the entrance of the vault. He walked into the room where the seal was not noticing a piece of paper that was on the floor near the door.

Naruto activated the seal and then went through the portal into the Vault. Once he was in Ashina appeared in front of him. Naruto then said, "I figured it out the seal you gave me it's a key seal."

Ashina nodded then said, "Yes that's right and I guess you want to know what it opens."

Naruto nodded and Ashina motioned for him to follow. Tucked into a far corner of the vault that Naruto had never been to was a normal looking door. Naruto tried to open the, but it was sealed shut. Naruto the figured that the key seal was what he needed to be able to open the door.

Naruto held the seal up to the door and channeled chakra into the seal and the door. The door lite up revealing a complex lock seal. The door then opened and he and Ashina walked in. There was much only a couple of chairs and table with a scroll holder that held five scrolls.

Ashina then said, "This might be a bit long of an explanation, so get comfortable."

Naruto sat in one of the chairs and Ashina started to talk. "The Uzumaki and the Senju clans have always been close. Together our clans discovered a third type of chakra. We call it nature chakra as it can be found everywhere, but especially in nature. Those who learn to use this type of chakra are called sages and the technique to use it is called sage mode or senjutsu."

Naruto nodded and Ashina continued "Our clans have developed a method for people to learn senjutsu and it is described in those scrolls. Not many are able to use senjutsu as it requires the user to have good chakra control and large reserves of chakra. Only a few from both of our clans have been able to fully master it. The last one was Hashirama from the Senju clan. Well, maybe you can turn change that. Take the scrolls one has a map to the place where you will be able to learn senjutsu. The others will explain the process to learn senjutsu and how to properly use it. Once you are done do bring them back."

Naruto nodded and said "Thanks."

Naruto then reached for the scrolls, but Ashina started speaking again "Normally you won't be allowed to train in senjutsu for a while as you haven't met the clan's normal requirements for being allowed to train with senjutsu. Normally you would have to be at least 18 and have progressed further in the clan's sealing techniques. However, the clan is gone and you don't have many people to help you and you have many enemies. That is why I am giving this to you." Naruto nodded understanding the seriousness of Ashina's words.

Naruto looked at the map. It was an island about 20 miles further out at sea from here. That's just within my range of the Hiraishin, and it was a good thing Komei made me learn the ocean strider jutsu so getting to the island is won't be that bad.

Naruto got up and headed to the far side of the island and went out to sea.

(one year later)

Naruto was packing up his stuff on the island where the Uzumaki learn senjutsu. It had been a long year, but he had finally mastered it. Naruto could now quickly become still and absorb enough Nature energy to go into sage mode. He also figured out that shadow clones can transfer the nature energy they collect back to him. So he would have a shadow clone absorb nature energy while he fought, but he could only have two clones at a time absorbing energy and while that was happening he could only make three more for combat. If he made more the clones would lose concentration and won't absorb nature energy.

Naruto was very happy with all the success he had in learning senjutsu, but there was one problem he missed Fuu, a lot and all he wanted was to get back to her. So he quickly packed up the rest of his stuff and teleported back with a quick stop to drop off the senjutsu scrolls at the vault.

(Ko island)

Naruto teleported into the main living area of their base. Before he got his bearings back he was tackled to the ground by a green blur.

The green blur hugged him tightly and buried her face into his chest. Naruto hugged back and said, "I missed you too."

(A/N)

Thanks to my beta dawnwatch for helping make this better.

Ok, so I know the last chapter I promised some action this chapter and I didn't really have any. Well, this chapter started to get a bit longer then I wanted so I decided to split it. So this means that chapter 9 is already written and just needs to be edited, so there shouldn't be months of waiting.

Naruto wrist blades are basically hidden blades for assassin's creed. Also, there will be no more assassin's creed references beyond the hidden blades.

If you don't understand exactly what was going on with the seal Naruto was working with don't worry it was mostly technobabble, so don't worry.

It's my headcanon that the Senju and Uzumaki clans know how to teach senjutsu. Hashirama never had a summoning contract as far as we can tell, so I assumed he learned it from his clan.

Also, I assume you all know how senjutsu works, so I just didn't feel like explaining as would have put me to sleep writing it.

Ocean strider Jutsu is a water based Jutsu that allows the user to quickly cross large bodies of water by skimming over the water. It's kind of like an advanced version of water walking.


	9. Chapter 9 part 3

(Four years after Naruto's banishment)

Naruto slowly cracked his eyes open feeling the now familiar weight on his chest. He looked down at the girl peacefully sleeping on him. Her head on his chest and her mint green hair almost in his face.

It had been six months since Naruto had returned had returned from his sage training with the Uzumaki clan. The second he entered the base with Hirashin Fuu had jumped him and pulled him into a hug and didn't let go for the rest of the day. Even when they went to bed they didn't want to leave each other's embrace. After that night they continued sleeping with each other together.

While on the island their relationship had continued to develop and now when they looked back they both realized that when they confessed their "love" to each other that they weren't in love and it had only been a crush. They just didn't know what the difference was back then. However, it ended up working out as the feelings for each other had continued to grow in the over the last two and a half years and now they were now truly in love.

They had both grown a lot in since they had arrived at Ko island. They had each grown a few inches and height and in hair length. Naruto's hair was still a spiky mess, with some of the longer parts now reaching down to his shoulders. Fuu's hair was less of a mess than it used to be and now went a few inches past her shoulders.

As Naruto was thinking on all that he and Fuu had done while on the island a knock came from the door. A voice then called out "My summons have spotted the Akatsuki and they are starting to make their move."

Komei had revealed to them how he was able to gather intelligence. He had two summoning contracts the rat contract and the cat contract. The rats were masters of getting into places and overhearing secret conversations. It was an added bonus that no one thought anything of a random rat off in the corner. The cats were faster and better for tracking. Also, there were a few larger cats that were capable of helping in combat.

Fuu who was asleep when komei knocked cracked open her eyes. Then she sleepily asked, "What did he want?"

Naruto replied, "The Akatsuki are starting to make their move."

Fuu jumped out of bed in a panic to get dressed into her combat clothes. Naruto got out of bed and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into his chest.

"Fuu it's ok, I am right here and we are going to take care of this," Naruto said to help calm down Fuu. She took a deep breath and nodded.

They got dressed ready for combat and headed to the kitchen. Komei had just finished cooking breakfast and was sitting out three plates full of food. They all started eating as Komei started to explain the situation.

"Two of the Akatsuki teams are currently active. Sasori and Deidara are in the Land of lightning going after Yugito Nii. Hidan and Kakuzu are in the Land of Fire hunting Utakata. Neither will make contact for two or three days as they are trying to stay low key. I'll go after Hidan and Kakuzu while you two head to the Land of Lightning and go after Sasori and Deidara. I'll have my summons find you and help you find Yugito or the Akatsuki." Komei said between bites.

Looking up Komei then asked, "Could you teleport me to the Land of woods it will make my trip shorter?" Naruto nodded.

After they were done eating they finished they were done they got together. Fuu and Komei put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and then they were gone without a trace.

Naruto no longer needed to wait in between jumps to using the hiraishin as he had spent a good part of the last six months perfecting his use of the Jutsu.

(Land of Fire)

Komei had just crossed the border into the Land of fire and was walking along a path planning how he was going to find the Akatsuki pair. He was brought out of his thoughts when a cat came across his path. The cat was carrying a rat in its mouth and placed it down in front of him.

The Rat then said "The zombie brothers attacked the fire temple and captured one of the monks named Chiriku. I heard this from the Hokage when she deployed a few of her ninja to try and find them."

Komei then thought 'Well there goes my theory of them staying low key. At least it will make finding them easier.' Komei then nodded and grabbed a few treats he always had on him in case his summons came with information. He gave them to them before watching them go back into the brush.

Komei pulled a scroll out of his backpack and unsealing the contents revealing a number of maps. He looked through them before and pulling one out of the stack and looking at it for a minute.

Running his finger over the map and then stopped. 'This is probably the bounty office they are going to go to. It's closest to the Fire Temple and if I remember correctly Kakuzu has used it before.'

Komei resealed the maps and then jumped up into the trees speeding off.

(Land of Fire)

Komei was heading towards the bounty office that he believed Kakuzu most likely to use. The office was hidden in the bathroom of a rest stop on an old trade route.

As Komei was approaching he felt a chakra start to be thrown around. 'It seems the Leaf got here before me. Better keep my distance and observe for a bit.'

Komei stealthily approached the fight. Once he got close he took in the scene. There was four Leaf Ninja fighting it looked like one jonin and three chunin. The Jonin was engaged in close range against Hidan. The chunin were hanging back, with one that looked like he was from the Nara clan directing the combat.

Kakuzu was hanging back and not participating in the fighting. 'Hidan probably got cocky and wanted to do this fight all by himself. Now should I intervene or stay out of this?'

Komei saw Hidan go for another attack and he knew that the leaf Jonin was going to be hit. Komei knew full well what would happen if someone fighting Hidan got even a little scratch.

Komei made his decision on intervention in that moment.

Asuma lifted his trench knives into to block the three bladed scythe from hitting him. He braced himself to block them and he looked over to his student Shikamaru to see if he had come up with a plan yet. But he didn't see his students usual thinking face. Shikamaru was currently wide-eyed and staring not Asuma, but right next to him. That's when he realized that his knives didn't block anything.

Asuma looked over and saw that man holding the shaft of the scythe with one hand stopping it from hitting Asuma. In the other, he held a Katana.

Asuma recognized the man for an old bingo book, as Komei Hagoromo a Ninja from the Mist.

Hidan was the first to speak after Komei stopped the scythe. "Hey, it's you. You fucking traitor. Lord Jashin is going to love me after all the sacrifices I gave him today."

Komei then said in a bored tone "Shut up Hidan. No one cares about your fake god."

Asuma jumped back to giving him some space. He didn't know that much about the newcomer, but Hidan called him a traitor. This likely meant that he had been involved with the Akatsuki for some time.

Hidan face turned from one of mild annoyance to one of pure rage. He pulled out his retractable spear and charged at Komei. As he charged he shouted "I have tried out your insults to Lord Jashin. NOW YOU D..."

Hidan was cut off when Komei decapitated Hidan with a lightning fast slash from his katana. Komei then uses the scythe to block the spear.

As this was happening Shikamaru was analyzing the newcomer. 'This guy seems to have been part of the Akatsuki, but no longer is. Also, the way that Asuma is keeping his distance from him. Asuma must know at least something about him.'

While the Konoha ninja was watching Komei made a move to grab Hidan's head, but a hand burst from the ground and grabbed Hidan's head. The hand pulled the head back underground. Quickly Komei unsealed his sword Sewing Needle and stabbed it through Hidan's body into the ground to prevent Kakuzu from taking it to reattaching Hidan's head.

Komei then looked over to Kakuzu and saw that his hand getting Hidan's head was still on the ground. Komei then unsealed a Kunai from a seal on his wrist and throw it as Kakuzu. As soon as it left his hand he channeled magnetic Charaka to into two lines parallel beside the Kunia. The magnetic fields moved the kunai forward accelerating it past the speed of sound.

It was faster than the blink of an eye the kunai impacted Kakuzu in the heart and blasted through him and continued by hitting the building and removing a corner of it.

Because Kakuzu was busy getting Hidan's head he didn't have enough time to harden his skin and protect himself.

A Leaf chunin with bandage running over the bridge of his nose said "Wow he killed those two so quickly." in an Awed voice.

Komei quickly cut off Hidan's hand that had the Akatsuki ring on it. He then sealed into a scroll that also contained his own ring.

The spot where Komei's kunai hit was covered by a large dust cloud. Out of that dust came a voice "You know Komei I never liked you and your bounty is going to be the best thing you did for the Akatsuki, but before that, I will need your heart for taking one of mine." Said Kakuzu dashing out of the dust cloud going right towards Komei.

Komei quickly went through a string of hand signs then slammed his hands into the ground and said "Magnet style: electric shield". Out of the ground, thin tendrils of earth formed a mess dome around komei.

The lightning spear hit the dome it didn't blast away instead it was absorbed and directed into the ground.

After the strike, the dome receded back into the ground and Komei stood up. As this happened the dust cleared to show Kakuzu stood with standing with 3 black figures behind him. All three had ANBU style masks, but all had a different color and design. There was a yellow, blue, and red one. Also next to Kakuzu was a black puddle with a broken light blue mask. In Kakuzu's left hand was the head of Hidan.

Hidan then said "Hey you fucking heathen give me my body back. Then I going to kill you for insulting Lord Jashin."

Kakuzu then said, "Hidan shut up he's just trying to get you pissed off so you do stupid things like charge at him so he can cut your head off."

"Goddamit ..." Hidan would have continued, but Kakuzu squeezed on his head to shut Hidan up.

Kakuzu then pulled out a bag and placed Hidan's head in it and attached it to his waist. He then said "Hidan stay quiet, so I can get your body back. I don't want to wait for it to regrow." Hidan mumbled something incoherent from the bag.

Komei then said, "One of you leaf chunin seal this body into a scroll to keep it away from him." Komei then pulled out Sewing Needle out of Hidan's body and place it back on his back. He then took a few steps forward towards Kakuzu.

Izumo and Kotetsu ran over and to seal Hidan's body into a scroll while Shikamaru went over to Asuma.

Shikamaru then asked Asuma "Who is that guy?"

Asuma responded "His name is Komei Hagoromo according to our intel he was one of the leaders of the mist rebellion during their civil war. But after the death of the fourth Mizukage and the end of the civil war, he just disappeared. I guess he got tangled up with the Akatsuki."

"So he was probably a member of the rebellion, but then why isn't he in the Bingo book. He left his village while it was rebuilding and joined the Akatsuki. Something isn't adding up. What should we do." Shikamaru said.

Asuma then said "Well you know the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. For now, we work with him, but after we will have to proceed with caution. For now, we provide support." They moved forward to a better spot to provide support.

Kakuzu ran through some and signs and said, "Fire style: searing migraine" and "Wind style: pressure damage" the red mask opened it's mouth and sent out a powerful stream of fire while the blue mask spewed out a massive ball of wind.

Komei ran through some hand signs and slammed his hands into the ground and said "Earth style: mobile core". Suddenly a round piece of earth sunk into the ground. All of the Leaf ninja and Komei were able to avoid the massive fire attack that Kakuzu launched.

However part of the attack came down the whole that Komei made. He ran through some signs and shouted "Water style: water wall". Komei then spit out a wall of water that fought against the fire and eventually won.

The water pushed the fire out of the whole releasing a large about of steam that clouded the area.

At the bottom of the hole, Komei made another sign and whispered "Hidden mist jutsu".

Kakuzu saw the water wall beat out his fire attack and decided to hold back and see what Komei's next move would be. After a few seconds, he realized 'This steam is too cold and too thick to come from just a fire jutsu hitting a water jutsu. He must be using the hidden mist Jutsu and I need to blow it away now.'

Kakuzu made a sign and said "Wind style: great breakthrough". The blue masked creature opened its mouth, but before it fired a Kakuzu heard a buzzing sound from behind him so he hardened his skin.

However, the thing that was coming for him still pierced through him. As it did the blue mask fired and blew away the mist. When it was blown away it revealed komei stabbing his heart with a lightning-enhanced sewing needle. It also revealed that Komei had cut off the bag that held Hidan's head and was now holding it in his off hand.

Komei quickly pulled out sewing needle and body flickered to the Leaf shinobi.

Hidan put two and two together and figured that he was not with Kakuzu anymore. He then said, "Hey wait what's going on where's Kakuzu?"

Komei decided he had enough with listening to Hidan pulled out a Kunai and shoved it in Hidan's lower jaw clamping his mouth shut. Komei then said, "I am tired of your annoying shit Hidan."

Komei then handed the bag to Izumo and said, "Be careful he bites."

Izumo cautiously took the bag and Komei turned back to Kakuzu who was standing back up after the yellow mask entered his body.

Kotetsu then said, "I thought you had him with that last attack."

Komei then said "To beat Kakuzu you need to kill him five times. He steals hearts from those he beats and so long as he has one he is still alive. The hearts can also act independently of him. Those two creatures each have a heart so to beat him we need to eliminate them all."

Kakuzu then thought to himself 'This isn't good they have Hidan and I am down two hearts. Plus there is another team of Leaf shinobi that will get here any second. The odds aren't good I need to get out of here.'

Back with the Leaf shinobi and Komei Asuma asked, "So what's the plan?"

Komei then said "You four spread out and make sure he can't escape I have a plan. Stay wide. I'll cover your movements with smoke."

Komei pulled out two smoke bombs and throw them down. Without a better plan, the Leaf shinobi followed Komei's lead and spread out.

In the smoke, komei made four mud clones and pulled out eight explosive tags.

These were no ordinary tags and Naruto had made them and they were a special design to be ten times more powerful than normal tags. Komei quickly places two on each clone. The clones then used "Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu" to go underground and tunnel towards Kakuzu.

Kakuzu though 'I am not going to wait for my own death. I'll escape by using another fire wind combo to tie up Komei. Then escape, by pushing getting past one of the two weaker chunin. I just need to make sure I avoid the Nara, so he can't use his shadow possession on me. Then I'll escape for the Land of Rain.'

However, Komei had other plans and before Kakuzu could act Komei attacked.

From the smoke cloud, Komei shouted "Lightning style: Lightning Dragon" and a lightning dragon rushed toward Kakuzu.

Kakuzu reacted by and said "Wind style: pressure damage". The blue mask shot a ball of wind at the lightning dragon. The wind attack hit the lightning one causing an explosion.

Kakuzu then thought 'what's he up to? He wouldn't have just thrown a jutsu at me to have it just be canceled out. '

It didn't take Kakuzu long to learn what Komei had planned. As soon as Kakuzu finished his thought he saw four clones of komei pop out of the ground lunging for him. Kakuzu started to jump out from the four Komei's, but before he got far a massive explosion happened. Despite hardening himself and his hearts the explosion was still strong enough to destroy the wind mask and damage himself and the fire mask.

Kakuzu was on his last legs he had not recovered from the fight at the fire temple where he had to use a lot of chakra do to the sheer number of monks at the Temple. It was compounded because of Hidan while effective took quite a while to kill and Kakuzu was impatient and used a lot of chakra killing monks instead of letting Hidan do the work. He had assumed he would only have to evade a team or two from the leaf not fight an S-rank that knew most of his secrets like Komei.

Once the dust cleared from the explosion it revealed Komei not holding the sword he normally used, sewing needle, but holding the Kiba blades, and that a second team of Leaf ninja had arrived.

That was when Kakuzu knew it was over for him. He was surrounded with at least three A-rank and one S-rank ninja with five others mostly in the B-rank range. Despite them keeping a quarter mile radius from him he knew there was no opening for him to escape.

Komei had the blades planted into the ground and was channeling a massive amount of Lightning chakra into the sky. He then shouted "Lightning style: Lightning Gate."

Massive bolts of lightning came down from the sky all aimed at Kakuzu. The attack killed the fire mask and left Kakuzu near death in a crater.

Lightning Gate was normally a wide area attack, however, Komei concentrated the attack in a small spot. After the attack, Kakuzu could barely move do to the amount of lighting chakra that had gone through his body.

Komei started to walk over to the crater where Kakuzu lay. Komei was channeling a lightning chakra into one of the Kiba blades he jumped down into the crater and stabbed Kakuzu through the heart killing him once and for all. Komei then took the ring off of Kakuzu's hand and put it in the scroll that contained the other Akatsuki rings and put the Kiba blades into wrist seals that Naruto had made for him.

Komei jumped out of the crater only to meet two leaf Jonin both of which he recognized. One was Kakashi a famous leaf jonin and Asuma the Jonin he saved earlier and who was next to him in a bingo book.

Asuma then said "From what that Akatsuki member said you were once a member of the Akatsuki. Would you please come with us back to the leaf as we have some questions we would like you to answer."

Komei gave a small confident smile and said, "I'd love to, but I have some stuff I need to, so not this time."

Kakashi then said, "I am going to have to insist that you come."

'A third team just got here. Total 3 A-rank, 8 B-rank, 1-C rank. While I could take them I'd rather not.' Komei thought to himself sizing up the situation. He then in a more forceful tone said, "As I said I have things I need to do, so I will have to decline."

Kakashi didn't say anything and suddenly moved. Asuma quickly followed moved to capture Komei.

However, Komei was too fast and quickly ran throw some hand signs and shouted "Lightning style: depth charge." Komei was surrounded in lightning and shot it at the two leaf Jonin. Kakashi used his own skill with Lightning to channel the attack into the ground canceling it out. Komei used this to jump back and get some space. He then pulled out Sewing Needle and pointed it straight up and made a half ram sign with his open hand.

Kakashi who had pulled up his headband to show his sharingan instantly saw what Komei was doing. Kakashi then shouted, "Mongi formation he's making mist."

The three leaf teams quickly moved jumped into a position that best prevented them from getting hit from behind. After a minute nothing happened and Kakashi looked to the leaf kunoichi standing next to him. She was a member of the Hyuga clan and he quietly said, "Hinata find him."

She quietly activated her Byakugan and a few seconds later she said, "He isn't here."

Once she said that the mist started to burn off and soon there was none left.

Asuma then said, "Where did he go."

The Hinata who still had her Byakugan active said "There's a whole over there." and pointed to a spot near where Komei had been standing when he started making mist.

Kakashi then said "Everyone stays information. Asuma with me."

Asuma and Kakashi went up to the whole and they inspected it. Asuma said, "It seems that he left."

Kakashi nodded and was about to say something, but both Jonin heard a hissing sound and quickly jumped back. Moments later there was an explosion at the entrance of the tunnel.

Sakura shouted, "What happened?"

Kakashi replied, "He booby trapped his escape tunnel." Kakashi sniffed the air and continued "The explosive also released something that is making it impossible to track his scent."

Riado then asked, "Now what?"

Kakashi turned to Riado and Asuma said "We are still mission effective, so we will continue by searching for Komei. But Asuma your take your team back to the Leaf with the dead Akatsuki members." Everyone nodded and then all three teams moved out.

(Elsewhere)

Komei climbed out of the ground and shook off some dirt and said, "Good thing that escape worked dealing with them could have been a lot of work." Before going off towards the Land of lightning.

(Hokage's office)

Tsunade was sitting in her office waiting for any update with operation Tora which was a mission to hunt down and kill or capture the Akatsuki members that had attacked the fire temple.

It had been a long four years since Naruto left and a lot had happened. She had finally gotten rid of the council which was a legacy from the thirds second reign as Hokage. As well she convinced the two elders, Koharu and Homura, to retire with Jiraiya and Shikaku Nara taking their place.

She was now truly Hokage with no one able to dictate what she could do, well so long as it didn't go against what the Daimyo had decreed. Which was why she was still unable to lift the banishment order on Naruto. 'Hopefully, the old coot dies. His son is too lazy to deal with shinobi affairs and getting him to undo the banishment will be easy.' Tsunade thought to herself.

Just as she was thinking that Shizune opened the door and said, "Team Asuma has returned."

Tsunade sat up and said, "Send then in."

Team Asuma came in and Tsunade told them to report. Asuma told about going to the fire temple, then to the bounty office, and about the fight with Hidan and Kakuzu.

Asuma then got to the part with Komei. "A shinobi stopped Hidan's scythe from hitting me. He was Komei Hagoromo."

Tsunade was surprised as it had been awhile since she had heard that name. She said, "Are you sure it was him." She asked. According to what she knew of him, he was supposed one of the most powerful shinobi in the mist.

Asuma nodded and Tsunade asked, "Do you know why he joined the fight?"

Shikamaru responded this time "The Akatsuki member Hidan called him a traitor and Kakuzu seemed like he knew Komei as well. So he was a member of the Akatsuki but is now fighting against them."

Asuma then continued "He then fought and defeated the two Akatsuki members." He then described the fight the fight between Komei, Hidan, and Kakuzu.

'He fought two Akatsuki members and defeated them himself. Impressive.' Tsunade thought before asking "Where is he now and where are the dead Akatsuki members?"

Asuma slightly nervously replied "We asked him to come back be he declined and we tried to capture him, but he quickly escaped. The dead Akatsuki members are in these scrolls. Well, expect for Hidan's head as Izumo has it in a bag."

Tsunade gave a confused look and was about to ask when Shikamaru spoke up anticipating her question. "Hidan is immortal and we don't really know how, but his head was cut off and he is still alive."

Tsunade had a slightly confused and disgusted look cross her as Izumo pulled out the bag and handed it to Tsunade along with the two scrolls. The bag started moving and making noises like a muffled person trying to yell. She then said to Shizune "Take the head to Ibiki and see what he can do with it. Then start the autopsy of the Akatsuki members."

Shizune took the scrolls and bag making sure to hold it at arm's length and quickly left Tsunade's office.

Asuma then continued "Teams Kakashi and Riado are currently trying to follow Komei."

Tsunade nodded and said, "Dismissed."

Team Asuma left and Tsunade turned to the window and said, "You know you don't have to eavesdrop you can just come in like a normal person."

Jiraiya then hopped through the window with a goofy smile on his face and said, "Since when was I normal?"

Tsunade sighed and said, "I assume you are going after Komei?"

Jiraiya nodded and said "Yes, if what the Nara said is true then he was a member of the Akatsuki he must have a lot of intel on them. Since it seems that he is fighting them he might be willing to hand over info easily."

Tsunade then said, "Hopefully he was just busy or didn't want to come into the village."

Jiraiya nodded and said, "Who knows maybe he has some info on Naruto."

A small smile came across Tsunade's face and she happily said "Maybe" in a quiet voice.

Jiraiya jumped out the window and headed off to find Komei.

End chapter

(A/N)

Thanks to my Beta Dawn watch for making this better.

Sorry, this chapter wasn't out sooner. It will likely won't be till may when the next one comes out.

It's been four years since the Sasuke retrieval mission, so I have added an extra year onto the time skip that cannon had, just because I felt that I was shoving a lot of training into a very small amount of time. I felt if I did the normal three years it wouldn't seem right.

I didn't go into detail about all of Naruto's skills. I felt would have been rather boring and rambly to go into depth, but worry not next chapter he will be fighting and a lot of his skills he gained will come out then. Also, the same thing will happen with Fuu.

I hope that I didn't make Kakuzu too weak I made it so that he wasn't at full power, but still, I feel like I undersold him for what he was in cannon. I kind of meant to make Hidan weak as if you are smart and know how his blood magic works then he isn't that hard of an opponent.

I would really like some feedback about the fighting scene. I don't know if it was good or not.

There is an explanation for why Komei has the Kiba blades it just didn't fit well into the chapter. I'll make sure to bring it up soonish.

Dawn watch: Kind of my bad for taking so long to get to this issues kept coming up.

OC Jutsu:

"Magnet style: electric shield" basically makes a faraday cage around the caster. It can block A-rank or lower long range Lightning ninjutsu. It won't block S-rank jutsu like "Kirin" or short range like Chidori.

"Lightning style: Lightning Dragon" It's a dragon. Made of lightning. A-rank. Not complicated.


End file.
